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It's been quite some time since I last had the chance to review one of Season of Mist's releases, and this pack included three of them! Cantata Sangui is a Finnish female-fronted band. Anna Plenimäki's voice reminds me of a new wave singer from my home town, named Dalbello. Her normal tone is lower, although she can also have some angelic tonalities like you can hear on "Exalta" and "The Seven Liers-in Wait". The vocal range is completed by growls, spoken words, and eve a bit of Gregorian chant on the spiritually inspired closing track, "De Profondis".

The oddity about this act is the fact that it does not have a guitar player. Instead, Cantata Saugui has two bass players, and it works quite well actually. As the lead singer said: "we don't need to down tune our instruments". One bass takes care of the crushing power riffs, while the second handles the leads and even does the arpeggios. The keyboards work the harmony lines, coupled with beautiful female tones. So what is the result of all this? A gothic band? Not really, although you'll find references to that dying metal genre. Doom Metal then? Perhaps, but in general, Cantata Sangui has a progressive edge all over its sonic structure on this mystical release. Crunchiness vs. calmer musical breaks; melodic one moment, more adventurous the next, all of which complemented by various vocals. Lots of good tracks to enjoy, but to name a few: "We'll Have it on Us", "Exaltata", "Broken Stars" and "Reality".