• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

It seems like master MZ is everywhere nowadays, releasing new albums from his various projects, like this new offering from Arcana Coelestia, Le Mirage de L'idéal.

This CD has a French title with songs having English titles, while the lyrics are written either in Italian or English. MZ has a personal approach to music with his electronics and keyboards, making Funeral Doom somewhat more appealing, or at least more melodic. Yes, this is slow music with super heavy guitar playing, pounding percussions, and ghostly deep rasps. Mr. MZ's bag of tricks adds to this formula some ambient and spacey keyboard/electronics, tremolo picking leads, clean and dissonant arpeggios, plus a bit of samplings. Not that much variety in the compositions and the winning formula is kept throughout the entire album. It works actually quite nicely and the listen remains interesting nonetheless - no such thing as a dull moment is to be found on this release. All of this mixture of suffocating heaviness, intensity and dissonant harmonies contribute in making Le Mirage de L'idéal having some dream-like feel. Great compositions like: "Duskfall" and "Requiem (for the fathomless void of redemption)" are prime examples of MZ's vision of Funeral Doom. Tracks #4 and 5 ("Tragedy and Delirium Part I and II") push the envelope a bit further by including female vocals, psychedelic guitars, Italian spoken vocals, more electronics and sick voices.

This is a great adventurous and crushing piece of Funeral Doom Metal.