stormlord – mare nostrum (2008)

grant me a moment of pride. living in a country where the odds to be proud of something are as high as that of a second advent of christ, well, that should make it a noteworthy occasion.
italy is famed to be “the” country of power and (to a lesser, very much dream theater-oriented level) prog metal, basically as well as norway is reknown for their black acts, or the netherlands for their gothic/symphonic bands, and so on. and just as norway is not confined to black metal, nor the netherlands to the likes of epica and after forever only, so even italy knows its exceptions. exceptions of which stormlord are an excellent example.
what they bring forward is a solid, perfectly played and mixed blackened kind of epic metal; or, if you prefer, a symphonic black metal softened by the epic background their master use of keyboards provides. mare nostrum (the latin for “mediterranean sea”, if you were wondering) bears some resemblance to what still is (in my opinion) thyrfing‘s most successful work to date, i.e. urkraft. there was in fact a time when the skilled swedes softened their (still aggressive) sound by the means of a melodic songrwriting, backed up by steady, sound keyboards. now that’s a feature to be found in this album. needless to say, that’s a great pro.
so is the overall epic, majestic atmosphere that runs throughout the nine tracks. their sound could be tentatively compared to that of dimmu borgir at their most symphonic; but without their “haste” and with a much folkier taste. many names come to my mind as i try to find a fitting comparison, basically all of the symphonic black metal bands i’ve heard (for that happens to be the only branch of black i seem to be able to listen to). ancient rites (i’m thinking of their masterpiece, rvbicon), something keep of kalessin‘s, and the likes. yet none of them fits adequately. stormlord‘s way is just too personal not to make any comparison sound out of place.
almost every track could be dealt with separately; but i’d like to put the stress on the album’s coherency. which is not to say no highlights are to be found; my personal favourite will definitely have to be “legacy of the snake”, a truly monumental song with awesome middle-eastern echoes (also to be found on “scorn”) structured into a stop&go kind of escalade, full of all the changes of pace a six minute lenght can grant.
sound female choirs mix amazingly with the singer’s growling vocals, and as already mentioned, the keyboards contribute to, rather than undermine, the songs’ cohesion. and still on the vocals: “neon karma” (a goth-oriented kind of piece) and “the castaway” couldn’t but remind me of moonspell‘s irreligious.
when you have both the might of a steady, hammering drumming and the freshness of symphonic keys and choirs, on the same album and merged together to this degree of maturity, you can’t miss the chance to give it a listen. the dark, evocative power of mare nostrum won’t in fact take much more than one listen before it has you admired and conquered.

thus spake the cennsor: 8/10