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THE ARCHIVES
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Morrigan's Pit has closed down as of November 2006. The site and its articles will stay online as an archive until September at least, but probably longer.
The Archives
2002-2006
» CD REVIEWS
» INTERVIEWS
» LIVE REVIEWS
» SPECIALS
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ANTIQUUS
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Ramayana
2005
self-financed
http://www.antiquus.net
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1. Empire Rising
2. Chanceling
3. Tanlin Bridge
4. Battle Of Eylau
Ramayana - An Epic In Six Parts
5. Part I - Ayodia
6. Part II - A Beautiful Stag
7. Part III - The Hunt
8. Part IV - Hanuman
9. Part V - Sri Lanka
10. Part VI - He Who Makes The Universe Scream!
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One hell of a revelation to me are Antiquus from the Vancouver (Canada) area. I don't know why I didn't properly listen to this as soon as I got it, but it ended up on a pile and it wasn't until now that I'm really listening to it. I can't believe what I've been missing out on! These guys show some very mature songwriting on this self-financed debut album and their style incorporates epic power metal, classic metal influences from bands like Iron Maiden, Jag Panzer and some Iced Earth, and some progressiveness from bands like Fates Warning. Esp. the vocal lines (not so much the voice itself) of Jesse White remind me of the latter.. of John Arch to be precise, the king of unusual but awesome vocal lines! The voice itself is more a Dickinson goes Messiah with some high Tyrant notes.
Everything they do, they do with a lot of drive and passion. The songs are very well written, with a lot of details, I already mentioned the great vocals and vocal lines (also for the backing vocals!), they have a good rhythmsection (Andrew Bak on drums and Scott Unger on bass) and I have to pay guitarist Jeff Dormer a huge compliment as well, great riffing, awesome solos! Dave Priban plays some guitar on this CD as well, but since the recording they got a new guitar team, Trevor Leonard (ex-Fireign) and Geoff Way. There are also guest performances by sitar player Vic Venu, singer Brooke McLean and keyboard player Marius Glassner.
And all this is yet unsigned, I hear you think? Yep.. at least at the time of the CD release. By now they have been signed by the Italian label "Cruz Del Sur Music" and a new CD has been planned for the fall (2006).
But back to this one for now: "Empire Rising" starts the CD and don't listen to this track alone, for this is still (at least in comparison with the rest) fairly normal power metal. The good harmonies and backing vocals already show here, though. "Chanceling" has some Maiden-esque riffs and great melodies and "Tanlin Bridge" is epic and haunting with some impressive vocals and guitar solo! But my jaw doesn't really drop until track 4, the long, very epic "Battle Of Eylau". What a beauty!! It starts with battle samples and acoustic guitar, the music then gets heavy and it's progressive and very haunting, this song also has an awesome guitar solo and some canon-like vocals.
Track 5 to 10 are "Ramayana - An Epic In Six Parts", dealing with Indian mythology. An impressive story told with amazing and innovative melodies and it introduces one of the guestmusicians, Vic Venu on sitar, as you can hear most of all in "Part I - Ayodia". It adds a wonderful oriental touch to the songs and some guitar and vocal melodies also have an oriental twist. "Part II - A Beautiful Stag" starts as a ballad and slowly builds up to a dragging part, but slows down at the end with some spoken lyrics. "Part III - The Hunt" is much heavier with some galloping riffs. It has some killer guitar work and builds up to a faster chorus. "Part IV - Hanuman" starts with jungle sounds and acoustic guitars, gets heavier later on, reminds me of Jag Panzer sometimes. Jesse isn't afraid to add some drama in his vocals, very cool. "Part V - Sri Lanka" is more progressive and melodic. Again some cool vocals here! "Part VI - He Who Makes The Universe Scream!" is the perfect finale. Heavy bass, ultra heavy soaring riffs and it climaxes into a driven, mesmerizing part with haunting and passionate vocals. And then again those ultra, ultra heavy riffs - wow... just WOW!
Parts of the production are a bit thin, but hey what can you expect from a self-financed unsigned release? It's still great to listen to and if this already blows me away, imagine what could happen with a more powerful production next time! Since Antiquus already show so much talent and passion in songwriting and performance, my expectations are very high. The metal world needs to hear this exceptional band!
submitted by Marlies 22.02.2006
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rating 1 - 5 Morrigans
5 = awesome, 4 = good, 3 = average, 2 = keep practising, 1 = sell your gear!
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