CROWNED IN EARTH — A Vortex of Earthly Chimes (review)

CROWNED IN EARTH — A Vortex of Earthly Chimes album cover Album · 2012 · Doom Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
2.5/5 ·
Kev Rowland
This album had a few things going for it before I even put it on the player. Firstly it was released by Black Widow, one of my favourite labels, and I just loved the artwork, which reminded me a great deal of the music of the Seventies. This is the second full-length album from the guys (and at 47 minutes is 12 minutes longer than their last album), and multi-instrumentalist Kevin Lawry and drummer Darin McCloskey have been joined by Brian J Anthony on mellotron. Note the important distinction there: he doesn’t play keyboards plural, but mellotron singular. That is already enough to get many proghead’s pulses racing, as if just one instrument was seen as being key to the Seventies prog sound then that would be it.

There are only five songs, but three of them stretch out to more than ten minutes, so I settled back to enjoy an album that promised to bring together influences from the likes of Black Sabbath, Cathedral, Reverend Bizarre, Camel, King Crimson, Black Widow, Ancestors, Electric Wizard and Atomic Rooster. Well, maybe not quite. There are parts of this album that do gel together very well, but there are others where it is way too workmanlike. The vocals just aren’t powerful enough, and while the guitar sound is beautifully rich and dramatic, with some nice mellotron overlays, there just isn’t enough going on to fully maintain my interest. When I look at Umur’s review on MMA of their previous album he says “the music is rather dull though and lacks power and conviction. The songs aren’t especially memorable either. There’s nothing really bad here either though, the material just comes off mediocre.”. Now I haven’t heard that album, but pretty much can be said for this one. It is okay, but really nothing more than that. www.blackwidow.it
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

… And the Universe Keeps Silent Death Metal
MAERE
Buy this album from MMA partners
Le bannissement Atmospheric Black Metal
CANTIQUE LÉPREUX
Buy this album from MMA partners
Tarantula Heart Sludge Metal
MELVINS
Buy this album from MMA partners
God Damned You To Hell Traditional Doom Metal
FRIENDS OF HELL
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Absence Melodic Death Metal
THE ABSENCE
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Fallen Ashes - Wage War (Official Lyric Video)
FALLEN ASHES
Bosh66· 8 days ago
EXISTENTIAL DEAD - Unreality (Single) 2024
EXISTENTIAL DEAD
Bosh66· 8 days ago
EXISTENTIAL DEAD - Cold Hands
EXISTENTIAL DEAD
Bosh66· 8 days ago
IRON MONKEY - Misanthropizer (Official Music Video)
IRON MONKEY
Bosh66· 11 days ago
??? (Losing ART) - "????" (Official Music Video) [HD]
漂浮者樂團
Bosh66· 11 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed