Cronian - Terra - [Century Media Records]

2006-08-25

Mixing two good things doesn't necessarily mean you'll end up having another good thing. There's this dude I know which is more or less a combination of other people's way of speaking…only problem is that he's a cheap and plastic copy – same with this album, which is a combination of Mr. V's (Andreas Hedlund) songwriting in his solo project Vintersorg and Øystein G. Brun's songwriting in Borknagar; the result isn't satisfying.

The more I listen to this album (just like the more I spend time with the aforementioned person) the more annoyed and the less willing to repeat it I get; pouring those two fine songwriters into what seems to be closer to movie soundtracks influenced tracks just doesn't work. From the very beginning, in "Diode Earth", the melodies strike as un-theme-like and artificially pushed to pseudo-avantgarde territories, the keyboards and orchestrations are too blunt and upfront on the mix while the black metal bits just sound samples and pasted – one good thing I can say about this track is that the combination of clean and growled vocal work well, giving some dynamics.
The synths/keyboards pretty much run the show; they dominate this clear combination of Vintersorg and Borknagar throughout the second track, "Arctic Fever", and throughout the album in general.
Better news arrives with the next track, carrying the band's name with a gloomy atmosphere caused by some eerie effects and Mr. V's typical drama. This is one of the best… no… one of the most tolerantable tracks here along with its follower "Iceolated".

Don't get the wrong idea, there are some good parts here: like the bubbly effect and choirs in "Colures" or the multi-layered effects in "The Alp" or even the spacey feeling of "Nonexistence", but this won't cut it for those that aren't die-hard fans of Vintersorg.

One can't seem to find an appropriate mood for this salad-like album, which seems to shoot without aiming or rather only aiming for those die-hards; the same die-hards that will get excited with the fact that the finishing track "End(Durance) - Part I" is a "part one" of something, meaning there will be a "part two" – a part I, as far as I enjoy Vintersorg's albums, won't be waiting for.

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