Empyrium- A Retrospective
(Prophecy Productions )
Empyrium- A Retrospective
(Prophecy Productions )
From Aural Innovations #37 (Sep 2007)
As you might suspect, A Retrospective… is a compilation album by the now defunct German dark folk/black/doom metal band Empyrion. The album features tracks from the band’s four CD’s as well as two unreleased tracks. I had never heard the band’s music before, but I sort of enjoy this extremely melancholic, dark and beautiful music they made. The instrumentation includes acoustic guitars, flute, Mellotron, piano, strings, horns, drums etc. This compilation includes only a few tracks with metal influence, as the band seemed to move more and more towards dark folk music along the years. Some of the tracks feature growling vocals, some quite opera-like singing with choirs giving the music a bombastic, medieval feel. There are also elements of classical music. The lyrics are either in English or in German. Almost every track is very slow and gloomy. This is very beautiful, sad and forlorn stuff, but a compilation is absolutely all I need by these guys.
You can find more information from the band’s website at: http://www.empyrium.de
Reviewed by Santtu Laakso