SOLITUDE AETURNUS – ADAGIO – 1998 (US) doom metal

SOLITUDE AETURNUS are back, again on a new label, but "Adagio" clearly stands in the tradition of their previous four albums, both musically as quality-wise. After "Downfall" had seen a few foreign elements, the classical epic Doom reigns supreme on "Adagio", only the guitars have a slightly modern touch to their sound, but apart from that everything is pure SOLITUDE AETURNUS.
After the quite spheric intro "My Endtime" they prove once more with "Days Of Prayer" that they deserve every praising word uttered about them in the past: grand melodies, a good portion of epicism, variable arrangements with faster passages loosening up the sound and the again brilliant voice of Robert Lowe. "Believe" surprises with a slight oriental touch and excels in its intensity, while the following "Never" provides us with some pure doom, viscous like lava, but garnished with great melodies...

"Idis" is one of the absolute highlights of "Adagio", classic SOLITUDE AETURNUS with faster passages and a strong chorus, before "Personal God" falls off a bit with its rather strange atmosphere and rather flowing character, before the slow-paced "Mental Picture" raises the level again and with the straight "Insanity's Circles" they have reached their excelsior class again. Quite dark is "The Fall", consisting of an acoustic guitar and quite deep vocals only, short, but effective!

After the quite typically slow-paced "Empty faith" with the usual good vocals, SOLITUDE AETURNUS prepare for their final battle with the quite Gothic sounding, dark "Empty Faith", "Spiral Descent" with its oriental melodies again and the closing cover-version of the BLACK SABBATH-classic "Heaven And Hell", which is plainly brilliant, the whole song sounds as if it had been written especially for Robert Lowe's voice, superb!

Fifth album, fifth killer, could be the conclusion about "Adagio" and who has heard the Texans once knows that you won't find any better epic and powerful Doom around!
Robert Lowe - vocals (Candlemass, Last Chapter)
John Perez - guitars
Steve Moseley – bass
Edgar Rivera – guitars
John Covington - drums
1 My Endtime 0:48
2 Days of Prayer 6:10
3 Believe 5:51
4 Never 2:53
5 Idis 5:40
6 Personal God 5:01
7 Mental Pictures 4:57
8 Insanity's Circles 6:05
9 The Fall 2:28
10 Lament 5:42
11 Empty Faith 3:58
12 Spiral Descent 7:08
13 Heaven and Hell 6:13

Picked this up on a whim, and it is just AWESOME!!! This is a concept album about vampires done with traditional heavy metal.The last song is a fantastic cover of "Heaven and Hell" and it fits perfectly with the rest of the music (just to give you an idea of what I mean about the type of music). I had heard a little bit about this band, but nothing prepared me for how good this record is. Just one more example of talent not translating into sales.
Rip from CD 256@ (artwork included)
Download links
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