Title: Let The Funeral Begin
Artist: Beati Mortui
Genre: Dark Electro
Release date: 21st May 2010
Label: Danse Macabre
Album Review
BEATI MORTUI was founded in 2005 in Helsinki, Finland. Their career was kicked off in late 2007 when they won an annual song contest organized by Club Schatten, a long-running Finnish gothic club. Within the upcoming 6 months, they were voted 2nd in Sonic Seducer's competition for best newcomer band without label, signed a deal with German label Danse Macabre and had their debut gig at nowhere else than Wave Gotik Treffen. After their debut album 'All But Dreams Will Die', several compilation appearances and single 'Vision of Hell', BEATI MORTUI is now back with their second album 'Let The Funeral Begin'.
The album is opened with a sinister intro 'Painting...' with a few lines spoken in Finnish (while the lyrics are predominantly in English, the outro and last full-length song are also in Finnish, and 'Sanctimonius' includes phrases in Latin). It is followed by the single outtake 'Vision of Hell', which, like equally harsh and danceable 'Soulreaper', is strongly reminiscent of e.g. SUICIDE COMMANDO and GRENDEL. Together with the title song 'Let The Funeral Begin', which is completed with a touch of metal elements, these tracks give a good impression of what the album is like: Fierce, full-on songs that - despite being mostly electronic - are not typical EBM tracks but more gothic-influenced; drawing from the themes typical to Romanticism and Gothic fiction.
BEATI MORTUI's style is a peculiar combination of everything from spooky bells to cheesy gabber-anthem synth lines, topped off with industrial metal riffs - however, the band manages to keep the package surprisingly well together. While this variety is more than welcome in the often unimaginative genre of dance-floor oriented EBM/dark electro music, some of the individual elements appear often-heard, even clichéd. Lead singer Maria's vocals have always been the thing that makes BEATI MORTUI an interesting exception in the male-dominated field of harsher dark electronic music: Her vocals vary from raging grunting to clean, near-angelic. She excels in particular in the metal-influenced ballad 'Deathrow', where her vocals are complemented with those of Bruno Kramm from DAS ICH, and 'All is Good (The Demon)' - unfortunately opposed to some other tracks, where she appears to be on the edge of her capabilities.
The sound and production on the album are clearly above average. Concluded, 'Let The Funeral Begin' is an interesting album from a relatively young band and as such certainly worth checking out. The limited edition of the album comes with a second CD, 'Funerals Remixed', which consists of 10 remixes by various artists, including among others the aggrotech legend SUICIDE COMMANDO, Finland's probably most famous DJ, PROTEUS and four top-notch Finnish EBM/electro projects.
Tracklist
CD1
01. Painting...
02. Vision of Hell
03. Prey
04. Let the Funeral Begin
05. Deathrow (feat B. Kramm)
06. Sanctimonious
07. Soulreaper
08. All Is Good (The Demon)
09. Touch Me Not
10. Alone
11. Musta Surma
12. ...Obsequiae
Limited Edition Remix CD:
01. Vision of Hell (remix by Suicide Commando)
02. Vision of Hell (remix by C-Lekktor)
03. Let the Funeral Begin (remix by Proteus)
04. Let the Funeral Begin (remix by Kuroshio)
05. Let the Funeral Begin (remix by Centhron)
06. Prey (remix by ErilaZ)
07. Prey (remix by Die Braut)
08. Prey (remix by Machine Park)
09. Prey (remix by Eisenfunk)
10. Soulreaper (remix by Overflow-110)
11. Soulreaper (remix by Inline.SeX.Terror feat DV-h)
Line-up
Maria - Vocals
Sami - Synths
Jarno - Guitar, Synths
Website
http://www.myspace.com/beatimortui
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 7
Sound: 8
Extras: -
Total: 7.5 / 10
{jos_sb_discuss:19}
Comments powered by CComment