Midnattsol – The Metamorphosis Melody (2011)

Three years after the release of their sophomore album “Nordlys”, Midnattsol returns with their masterful Gothic Metal release “The Metamorphosis Melody”. Providing over 55 minutes of music, the band shows more signs of maturity and the abilitie to create very effective songs.

Driven by the enchanting vocals of Carmen Elise Espenæs, the album opens with the album title track and you can quickly hear the massive guitar sound (for a Gothic Metal band) being surrounded by magical keyboards. Since the first song we can hear the excellent production behind this release and the raw power that the band tries to transmit with their sound.

As the album progresses, we can see that the band has greatly improved at creating catchy songs that are very powerful and contrasts them magically with Carmen Elise’s vocals such as “Spellbound”, “A Poet’s Prayer” and “Motets Makt”. The typical more ballad-esque songs like “The Tide” and “My Re-Creation” showcase Carmen Elise’s vocal magic and nicely provide changes in the overall flow of this release. In particular “The Tide” has a eerie resemblance to earlier songs of Trail of Tears, making it one of our favorite songs of this release.

One of the main things we love about “The Metamorphosis Melody” is that even though we have lush keyboards and majestic vocal melodies, the album still sounds like a Metal album should sound: powerful and direct. This is not to say that all the Gothic elements are missing, but rather they are used as enhancements instead of the ‘main point’ of the release. Songs like “Forlorn” give us that early 2000’s Gothic Metal feeling and we are completely loving it.

The only folk song in this release is “Goodbye”, and while it kind of provides a nice break from the rest of the songs, it also feels a bit out of place and the album could have done without this song. In general, all the other songs are more ‘Metal’ and show a more aggressive edge of the band, and this is something we completely enjoy more than the tiresome Folk-ish approach to Gothic Metal.

With even less folk influences in their sound, Midnattsol manages to fully stay away from the Leaves’ Eyes comparisons that have been plaguing them since their early days and can now fully stand on their own. The band has been together for longer and creates more coupled songs that exploit the full potential of the band’s members. If you like Gothic Metal and the beautiful singing of Carmen Elise, wait no more and buy this excellent release.

Release: May 3rd, 2011

Country: Germany