Conor Fynes 'Ancalimon: Fates Of Odemyr' - Senmuth (4/10)

Quite frankly and simply put, this is a bit boring.

After a pretty successful bout with the epic 'Bark Of Ra,' it seems that Senmuth has fallen back a few steps, back into a relative state of mediocrity. As can be said for so many of the Russian one man project's releases, there's alot of potential underneath the surface of the music on 'Ancalimon,' but it is rarely ever tapped into.

A lesser known fact about this album is that it was written to be the soundtrack to a computer game. While the game itself seems to have never appeared on the map, we are left with this music, which is generally bleak, cold and almost mechanical. While 'Ancalimon' is generally very similar to alot of the music Senmuth released over the course of 2007, there is definately more of an industrial flavour here. In terms of composition and songwriting, it might be best to consider this another one of the man's 'ambient' pieces, due to the fact that there is little here that really rings memorably with the listener, besides a few sparse gated-delay 'surfer' guitar sections which are pleasantly surprising to listen to amongst the generally exhausted soundscape.

The only track here that really impresses is the opener 'Neilos,' which incorperates some pretty straightforward metal riffs into a latin-tinged, horn fueled rage. With that being said, the 'horn' (or at least the sound of the 'horn,' many of the instruments heard here are artificial) is very prevalent on 'Ancalimon,' which could have worked well, were it not for the obnoxious sound of the synthesized tones. Besides that, many of the songs flow harmlessly along as backing tracks. Occasionally Senmuth will bring some of his soloing into the matter, but it lacks the tact to keep the tracks interesting, unfortunately.

Senmuth has had better releases than this, so there's not too much point in giving this a listen past the first track. To it's credit however, I can see this music working much better as a soundtrack to some sort of media. As it stands however, 'Ancalimon' does not stand out above it's peers.