Review Summary: Criminally underated. A melodeath masterpiece that will save many listeners from the mediocrity of today.
Throughout the years “melodeath” has put out either some of the best records and bands the metal genre has ever seen or some mediocre acts. Unfortunately most bands fall into the mediocrity part since they follow pretty much the same structure in their songs that has been done by a hundred other bands. Even if the sound is actually nice, a feeling of having been heard before lingers. This is not the case with Eucharist.
An exact number of zero riffs and songs are copied or recycled.
The best thing about “Mirrorworlds” is that this record is actually melodic. Melody and heaviness blend together to create this masterpiece. Throughout the span of eight songs Eucharist bombard the listener with melodies that portray a delicate beauty underneath, something that most bands today utterly fail to achieve. The opener (and title track) or the closer should well justify this statement as well as any song on here.
Another strength here are the two instrumentals. “The Eucharist” is the longest and arguably the best song in “Mirrorworlds”. It is actually the perfect showcase of heaviness and melody that words fail me. You have to listen to it for yourself. “In Nakedness” is the second instrumental. It is a hell of an ambient song. Don’t expect something like “The Eucharist”. This one is actually for chilling or falling to sleep. It uses various instruments other than the guitar and bass (I’m not sure which) and creates this calming effect.
The drumming here is top notch. The drummer is Daniel Erlandsson mostly known for his work with “Arch Enemy”. He does quite a number of complicated fills in the album as well as some amazing blast beats. He doesn’t use his bass drums very much and it is only good in my ears. The guitars are of course the highlight in the album since they are responsible for the melodies I spoke of before. The bass is on the low end and difficult to hear with the exception of “In Nakedness” where there is nothing to bury it under. The vocals aren’t the best you’ll hear nor very varied but it doesn’t matter much in the end.
The lyrics seemed to be dealing with internal struggles of the writer. It is actually refreshing to hear about something other than death, depression or religion bashing.
If something plagues the album it would be the production and the playing time. The production is not bad but certainly not good. Don’t expect something pristine since it gets a bit murky sometimes. Luckily it doesn’t take much from the greatness of this effort. The album is also pretty short clocking at 36 minutes. This leaves the listener begging for more especially after the grand (but equally short) closer.
This is a criminally unde gem of “melodeath”. Anyone who enjoys the genre or metal in general should give this a try. The material contained here is well made and executed.
