Mausoleum 2013
Dark Skies Over Babylon
A new adventure for the seasoned warriors sees them stray from the Holy Grail track.
When EDEN’S CURSE bassist Paul Logue completed the puzzle he set off to create on the stomping ground with the former TAKARA singer Gus Monsanto, there could be no doubt in the quality of their common crusade, even though the Knights Templar legend has become too common a place lately. It depends on one storytelling skills, of course, and when this new band’s debut treads the progressive waters, as it does in the orchestral uplift of titular epic or “Bitter Sweet Paradise”, balancing the speed charge, it’s hard not to join the soulfully harmonies-rich party and not to share the “Witches Of November” sentiment.
When the quintet lead their battle on the standard metal field, the allure diminishes, and “Knights Of The Crimson Cross” almost falls flat on its heroic face, whereas “Tame The Tempest” is elevated with Scott McLean’s piano and “Seventh Seal” and “Sky Is Falling Down” possess danceable drive and memorable tunes. “Black Abyss” adds electronics and Ben Randall’s acoustic guitar to the mix, but “Midnight Cathedral” pitches its quasi-operatic bombast too close to the MAGNUM camp. Mostly pleasant, the band’s music has a long way to go, in their own words, from here to heaven, and firmly feel that thin stylistic line they so often cross.
***1/4
