Empyrium
A Retrospective...

Release date: November 24th 2006
Label: Prophecy Productions
Provided by: Prophecy Productions
Website: www.empyrium.de
Style: A gloomy and bombastic one
 

Rating: 80/100
Cover artwork rating: 20
/100
Reviewed by: Thomas Nielsen
Date: December 10th 2006 

 

Righty, I’m a trifle confused here. I get a promo in the post, want to find out a bit more about the band and as a natural progression in the research enter their website…only to learn the these Germans disbanded two years ago?!? What the…?

 

Fair enough, the release is called ‘A Retrospective…’ and the title must be right on the spot, then. A retrospective for a band with no future. Lovely.

  

Notwithstanding the dodgy background, the music is something else. Without knowing the first releases of Empyrium, I have a feeling that this is yet another black metal band that has gone on to move the boundaries of the genre by becoming something completely different.

 

‘A Retrospective…’ is more than an hour’s worth of classically inspired bombast, little spurts of black metal like aggression, acoustic pieces, flutes, mellotrons, north winds and theatrical baritone voices that say serious things in German. If I were to make any comparisons at all, I’d have to drag Moonspell into the arena, because that’s about the only other outfit I can draw parallels to (and still not quite).

 

This is perfect music for a good book and the pouring rain outside. Full of atmosphere and beauty, yet with an underlying aggression that on a rare occasion breaks through to show its ugly face.