Rhymes of Lunacy – 95%
Spatupon, September 22nd, 2020
Written based on this version: 1993, Cassette, Black Mark Production
Memento Mori is one of those bands that I have encountered completely arbitrarily and was impressed so much by what I was hearing that the band in question quickly becomes a staple in my daily diet of heavy metal. Memento Mori is a Swedish traditional metal outfit which incorporates power metal and doom metal elements to their music in order to keep their overarching approach as fresh as possible. When one thinks of doom metal from Sweden, Candlemass is usually the first thought or pick, and to the joy of many and to the dismay of few, Memento Mori borrow a lot of elements from their aforementioned Swedish cousins.
Memento Mori’s debut full-length entitled “Rhymes of Lunacy” is a relatively long journey into the halls of the punished, condemned to an oppressive life of slavery, doom, death and dismay. Memento Mori perfectly manage to frame such emotional mind-states with the music they wrote for this album. The hammer of doom can be felt pounding upon the vital areas of the listener’s soul, and this, the listener finds himself alone, affronting this gargantuan showcase of prime-level traditional heavy metal with a very strong old-school attitude.
The musicians that play on this album will have my eternal gratitude for helping me experience several heights of euphoria which I haven’t experienced in quite a long time. Unfortunately, throughout most of my early years listening to metal, I always kept at bay from traditional heavy metal bands, because somehow I always felt that they would be mere rip-offs of already established bands such as Black Sabbath, Candlemass and the rest of the epic doom metal horde.
This whole album feels quite cohesive and complete and has a certain level of musical proficiency and aptitude which is rarely seen from bands in their first release. This Swedish outfit takes everything which bands in the past have mastered and put their own twists to the whole idea, which I have mostly identified as the general feeling of suspense which the music constantly forces the listener to experience as the root of their successful formula. Each song has its own unique character, yet somehow, everything manages to fit perfectly in the frame composed by this album. I would highly recommend this release to anyone who is interested in fresh, new, yet still old-school traditional heavy metal.
rafazardly 