Mors Principium Est – Embers Of A Dying World

[schema type=”review” name=”Mors Principium Est – Embers of a Dying World” description=”Label: AFM Records” author=”Juho Karila” pubdate=”2017-02-10″ ]

Mors Principium Est is a Finnish melodeath band, which has always gone its own way, not minding about trends but doing what they feel right. Founded in Pori 1999, the band has gone through a lot of lineup changes but they’ve always stayed true to their sound and their 6th studio album makes no difference.

As an intro for the opening track, we’re given Genesis which underlines the observations of the most observant. Reclaim the Sun isn’t only a stunning masterpiece and a benchmark to bedroom guitarists but simply well-versed all-around track, thanks to Andy Gillion‘s skills in guitar playing but also the band’s skills in composing and making arrangements. The track also contains about everything what’s new with EoaDW. It’s more bombastic and orchestrated than other tracks we’ve heard before.

Followed by Masquerade we are greeted with a sense of nostalgy as the group has traced their path back to the roots and surprises us by giving something that could almost be taken from their first albums. While it may seem to be technically bit more laid-back and riff-orientated, it still offers the complexity to recognize the modern MPE out of it. The next track Into the Dark doesn’t differ much but by being quite heavily orchestrated one, putting even less emphasis on the guitars.

And this is the watershed of the album as we’re given the digipak bonus track The Drowning which really stands out from the rest. It’s the most un-Mors track I’ve heard in a while and it reminds of late Norther because it’s heavily based on dark soundscape and the general mood of melodic death metal rather than those razor sharp melodies the group has become known of with the past couple of albums. While this one and the following Death is the Beginning are clearly the weakest links of the album, they’re also marking that the group is maturing and expanding rather than standing with only one or two strongpoints to showcase. However, the greatest sin of these pair of songs is that they’re mid-tempo.

Embers of a Dying World is a very versatile testament of Mors Principium Est shedding its skin, not by reinventing anything but utilizing old tools in new ways and in contrast to all the technical melodic leads, it’s delightful to hear some thrash here and there as the genre seems to be getting smaller and smaller with the departure of legends like Amoral, MyGrain and Norther. Served with only few flaws, and some quality tunes to bang your head to, MPE gives us an epic to stand the test of time, and with the skills and the willpower, it’s not common nowadays that you can still hear emotion from the playing, it’ll be only a matter of time when one Children of Bodom is surpassed musically. Only one more thing remains to say: wow!

Lineup:
Ville Viljanen – Vocals
Mikko Sipola – Drums
Teemu Heinola – Bass
Andy Gillion – Guitars

Tracklist: 01. Genesis 02. Reclaim The Sun 03. Masquerade 04. Into The Dark 05. The Drowning (Bonus Track) 06. Death Is The Beginning 07. The Ghost 08. In Torment 09. Agnus Dei 10. The Colours Of The Cosmos 11. Apprentice Of Death

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