Friday, July 1, 2011

A DREAM OF POE - The Mirror of Deliverance CD review


A DREAM OF POE - The Mirror of Deliverance CD
Arx Productions
Genre: Death Doom
Rating: 4/5

I really praised their Lady of Shalott EP from last year to the point where I would not have minded hanging out with em on the Azores. Well for a weekend at least and then I would have to find a way back to being land locked very soon because I'm not cool with islands. Yes A DREAM OF POE (actually it's a one man band featuring Miguel Santos and a few session musicians) live out there on the islands in the Atlantic, Sao Miguel Island to be precise. Last year when I was listening to the previously mentioned EP I read up on their home since obviously it has some great influence on em as well as Edgar Allan Poe, their namesake. I predicted good things for em and here we have their debut full length. The Mirror of Deliverance is six songs wrapped in death doom beauty which is not far from the territory MY DYING BRIDE has floated on. It's the type of release where you put on, sit down in a chair by the window and watch the waves of the ocean wash up on the shore below. Unfortunately I hate the ocean especially the beach but I can dream can't I and that's what I did when the watery sounds of "Os Vultos" rolled forth from my speakers. Of course it would have been better with the sound of waves crashing at the end of it's ten plus minute play.

"Os Vultos" is the second cut on here and it's sung in their native Portuguese language. Opener "Neophyte" is slightly upbeat adding a grand explosive death doom sound. They bring back the title cut of their EP on here which is a cold gothic masterpiece of a song especially when the contrasting vocals, female and male (clean and growled), come into play. "Liber XLIX" is the wake up cut on here featuring these crisp and chunky riffs plus Miguel Santos' versatile vocal style. "The Lost King of the Lyre" is the shortest track on here but sounds so much like something MY DYING BRIDE should have written years ago but didn't. It's my favorite song on here. The last cut "Chrysopoeia" surprisingly enough is the longest at eleven plus minutes. I should point out that it's eleven plus minutes of haunting beauty which after the song fades away there is a great sense of loss. That voice of the deliriously crying woman on "Chrysopoeia" doesn't really help either. The first time I played this I was kicking back relaxed then that woman's voice shocked me back into reality. For a while there I thought I was on that green island of theirs kicking back on a deck chair with a collection of poems by Edgar Allan Poe open upon my chest and hearing those waves. Interesting.

Label: http://arxprod.net.ua/


Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/dreamofpoe


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