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Empyrean: Quietus

08/09/09 || cadenz

Cruelty and the Beast and New Obscurantis Order with a hint of Follow the Reaper. Review done…huh? The Lord (K) will string me up by the balls and invent a new instrument – the first one meant to be played with steel-capped boots – if I don’t make it longer? Well, I’ve had a good life…OK OK, I’m kidding! Put that thing away! Sheesh.

Empyrean is a band from Australia (or the netherworlds as I like to call the Down Under…or not) formed in 2003, and “Quietus” is their debut full-length. The album is absolutely not bad, it’s actually quite enjoyable, but it’s got lots of small annoying details which make the listening experience less orgasmic. We’ll get to those in a bit – but first, let’s check out what kind of music we’re served with.

I’ll use the ancient ingredients list format, if you please: Pounding and progressive riffs? Check. Melodies and leads of the more mysterious, neo-classical kind? Check. Aggressive drumming with some fast double kicks? Check. High-pitched screeching and lower growls? Check. Medieval gothic atmosphere draped in epic keyboards all over the place? Double check. Or wait, make that a quadruple motherfucken check. Sound familiar? Yes, they’re going CoF on our asses. And lo and behold – they kick CoF’s asses at being CoF! Hilarious, yes I know. To be perfectly honest, Empyrean is not just another Cradle of Filth clone, they’re clearly doing their own (much more progressive) thing but their forefathers are easily recognized.

So there’s lots and lots…and even more lots and lots of stuff in here to take in and sort out – riffs and melodies thrown in from all sides, millions of keyboards and samples amidst the tapestry of chaos woven by the proggy and sometimes hyper-active drums and guitars, plus the varied vocal delivery, ranging from Dani Filthesque chihuahua-raping to dark dobermann growls and even some clean vox, which don’t seem out of place at all. The darker grunty vocals are unfortunately put way too high in the mix, and they don’t sound very good. Could be a matter of poor EQ’ing or miking, though. The Dani screeching gets a little tiresome in the end as well.

Now, when an album is filled to the brim with this much different stuff, the production and arranging jobs are crucial. In this case they’ve done a pretty OK job. The four-minute intro – which is an awesome soundtrackish build-up – sounds amazing, but after that things get messier. The overall sense is one of chaos – and mostly in a good sense. The numerous layers of keyboards, guitars, bass and drums make things of course harder to fit in their right places in the mix, and sometimes there’s too much entropy and too little clarity for everything to shine through properly. I understand though that they were probably looking for a thick, chaotic atmosphere, and overall atmosphere prevails over single instruments any day of the week.

The song writing is at a pretty high level, not much sticks in my head but I like most parts in most songs – “When the Sky Turned” probably being my favorite track. But as said before, the arranging on albums with such a dense texture as this one is very important, and small details in the soundscape can ruin the mood completely – and there are lots of those small irritating things that bug you to death, like for example the wannabe-Alexi-Laiho leads which don’t fit the music at all. A tad sloppy harmonized shredding, artificial harmonics and whammy attacks played with a horrendous lead guitar sound ruin the atmosphere like nothing else, they’re probably just something the guitarists wanted to throw in there to draw some attention to themselves. Please refrain from doing this in the future, and think of the greater good – that is, the song.

Also, what the fuck is up with the orchestra hits? I thought they had been driven to extinction by all the sane musicians in the world. Please get rid of those, as well as the atrocious fucken harpsichord sound! I can live with some of the other Nintendo samples and patches, and the occasional piano parts fit nicely into the soundscape but orchestra hits and harpsichords can go fuck themselves with chainsaws. I love the harpsichord, if it’s used in the proper way – that is in classical fucken music, like Scarlatti or Bach. Learn. Fuck.

And remember, next time you record an album – tune your fucken instruments. Some of the harmonized leads made me cringe so much I smashed my remote to pieces. I’ll send a bill your way, mates.

OK let’s sum this up. Muchos whining about small details, I must be having my period or something. So I’ll probably score this album low, right? Nope. The song-writing, execution and, front and foremost, the atmosphere are at a high level and the annoying things get more and more tolerable with every listen (not the orchestra hits though, they fucken suck! And out-of-tune guitars is something I’ll never be able to forgive.) “Quietus” turns out to be a grower, which is to be expected from an intricate, progressive and epic album which is well-written and –executed. I hope Empyrean can erase the annoyances for their sophomore, ‘cause that’d absolutely be something worth waiting for!

7,5

Information
Released: 2008
Label: Prime Cuts
Website: www.empyreanmetal.com
Band
James Hill: vocals
Shayne Johnson: guitars
Timothy Edwards: guitars
Daniel Tannett: keyboards
Daniel Sigglekow: bass
Timothy Wedel: drums

Tracklist
01. Prelude
02. From Whence the Mourning Came
03. Halls of Sorrow
04. Pleasure of Another’s Pain
05. Shackled Within
06. Raped and Dying
07. Waves of Tomorrow
08. Through Death and Beyond
09. When the Sky Turned
10. Quietus

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