Coronatus – Terra Incognita (2011)

Returning after two years of releasing one of Infernal Masquerade’s favorite albums of all time “Fabula Magna”, today we have Coronatus and their latest opus “Terra Incognita”. While many bands can play Gothic Metal, there are only a few that call pull-off the dual female vocal approach like Coronatus can do. However, we have been a bit skeptical on how the band would sound with none the singers of the previous album returning.

With all doubts quickly silenced, Coronatus shows that regardless of the singers “Terra Incognita” is still one hell of an album regardless of the band’s singers. With Ada Flechtner returning to the line-up and Mareike Makosch being the other new singer, the band still features their characteristic dual-vocal approach that sets them apart from the heaps of Gothic Metal bands. With the addition of new keyboard player Psalm, the band provides us with 12 tracks of excellently crafted top-notch Gothic Metal.

In the Doom-ish opening track “Terra Incognita”, the band quickly showcases the talents of both vocalists surrounded with powerful guitar riffs and very nice atmospheric keyboards. Going back to the traditionally catchy chorus sections we have “Saint Slayer”. In this track the guitars and drums create a nice foundation for the keyboards and singers to shine, very much in the traditional Coronatus vein. With a more Folk-ish edge we have “Fernes Land”, a very emotional track that greatly takes advantage of the two singer’s styles to nicely follow each other and delivers a very powerful performance.

“Dead Mans Tale” is the album’s first single, and nicely showcases how all the band’s elements merge together. Having a nice medieval touch, this song even features some choir sections that take the music to a whole new dimension, one of the best tracks in this release for sure. Interestingly enough after the fourth song the rest of the tracks are mostly in German, while this is weird; it does not take away from the excellent songwriting skills the band has.

A very important thing to note is that some tracks feature more atmospheric/folkish elements like “Der Kleriker”, “Vor der Schalacht” amd “Das zweite Gesicht”. This change seems a bit weird and confusing since the band takes on another dimension entirely, and while it sounds decent, we are not big fans of this. Our favorite track of this release has to be the epic “Der letzte Freund”, a very emotional track that features a wide variety of intricate changes in the pace. This track also showcases the band’s ability to craft very intense and emotionally diverse songs.

The album closes with another Folk-ish song titled “Traumzeit”, allowing us to start to wonder if the band will go full-on Folk Metal for their next release. A very dubious change in the style since we already have excellent bands like Eluveitie that already play excellent songs in this vein. In general, we have to say that “Terra Incognita” is a very good release, except from the Folk-ish sections. We like Coronatus as a Gothic Metal band and would be a shame if they move into trendier territories with heavy Folk Metal influences. If you are a fan of the band, you will not be disappointed, but be weary of the possibility of band suddenly changing styles and disappointing you in the future.

Release: November 18th, 2011

Country: Germany