Mare Infinitum - Alien Monolith God (CD Review)

01.The Nightmare Corpse-City Of R’lyeh
02.Prosthetic Consciousness
03.Alien Monolith God
04.Beholding The Unseen Chapter II
05.The Sun That Harasses My Solitude



Georgiy Bykov (Guitar/Bass/Programming)
Andrey Karpukhin (Vocals)
Ivan Guskov (Clean Vocals)



Russian doom band first appeared in 2011, this is their second full-length album which invites you to a new journey through the endless sea. The musical material of the album is a logical continuation of the debut release 'Sea Of Infinity' and includes 55 minutes of high-quality doom death metal.

"The crew of the Mare Infinitum ship will exalt you to the space heights, where a massive meteorite attack threatens to eliminate every living being on the surface of planet Earth, and then sank into the dark Lovecraftian depths where unknown Cthulhian creatures plunge you into the abyss of an imminent terror."

So 'The Nightmare Corpse-City Of R’lyeh' may start in a fairly basic way, but as this piece moves forward we get treated to a lot of different ideas, the clean and death metal style of vocals blend perfectly, then add to this some near symphonic elements, funeral doom to heavy almost sludge rock and faster death metal passages.

'Prosthetic Consciousness' is on the face of it a funeral doom paced song, but the way they add the keyboards, almost psychedelic guitar work and keep changing tempo it becomes a different almost progressive rock tune in its construction.

Now 'Alien Monolith God' may sound like a Monster Magnet song title but this 14 minute monster has a different method of attraction.
Its slow, brooding and atmospheric for the first half, the second half adds more melodic guitar and keyboards and a few other sound effects, the clean vocals add clarity in the darkness and again their are progressive rock hints.

If symphonic Funeral Doom were a genre then 'Beholding The Unseen Chapter II' would be a prime example of how to do it and if we add the Progressive tag to that list then 'The Sun That Harasses My Solitude' wuld do the same.

What a brilliant album, a clever and original mix of influences that creates a creative bridge between musical genres.

Rating 10/10
For Fans of:Albez Duz, Deprive, Nangilima, Novembers Doom