Baskerville - Opus Aeternum (Review)

I listen a lot to music. That's why it's very difficult to surprise me. For last ten years I was surprised only by three power metal bands: Alhambra, Light Bringer, Octaviagrace. At a minimum, these bands unite a special, unique style.

My Rating: 71/100

Source - metal-archives.com

After two full-lengths albums this band could already develop its own unique style. That is, you click "Play" and instantly say "This [Band name]". I remembered this because it's not noticeable here. Title in Latin and drawing: on background of the sky a sword and some pattern are depicted. Kitsch is felt from beginning. Well, contents is the main. I can't say that this impression is completely refuted in listening. Here is a good combination of templates. But it looks very cool. Also there is no frank quickie. This disease affects many bands. But it's noticeable here that each composition was polished to an absolute luster.

Voice is good. Vocalist has excellent abilities. Someone might say that he looks like Masatoshi Ono or someone else, but I will not label them. I'll just say that it's done excellently. You can also notice that vocal parts are very diverse. Here you can see both excellent control of the top, and emotional outbursts.

The first thing you can notice is keyboard player. It does't take much of composition - it does't reach the label "symphony". But there is a great variety of keyboards. Synthesizer well emphasizes the best aspects of compositions, making a good album impression.

There is no need to recall what "guitar" means in power metal. But here the situation is quite interesting. When you just listen to it without trying analysis, it causes very strong emotions. When you start to disassemble in parts and analyze - nothing complicated. This is achieved through an excellent combination of riffs - it's noticeable good composer's work. Insane solos complete this interesting constructions.

Band does't have a constant bassist. Therefore, there are two options: a session member or sampler. But I was wrong - guitarist wrote down the bass. This can explain a few groove constructions (when bass repeats guitar) - guitarist sees composition very peculiar. Nevertheless, bass has several interesting segments (in 6 and 8 tracks), but the rest are standard patterns. Drums have a more successful patterns combination - again it's noticeable that composer has done a good job with this.

I can say that a good band released an good release. But here we will not find something special. Here we will not find any interesting ideas or unique style. Here is just a wide range of standard ideas and patterns that are simply polished to an absolute luster. Well, this also requires great abilities. And members have these abilities. But it should be keep in mind that expensive Ferrari and an old Toyota will have only one purpose - to spin the wheels.