L’Alba Di Morrigan – The Essence Remains (2012)

Arriving all the way from Italy, today we have a very mellow and atmospheric release with L’Alba Di Morrigan’s debut full-length album “The Essence Remains”. Combining elements of Art Rock with some Progressive and Post-Rock hints, the band delivers nine tracks of solid music that will nicely relax you after a hard day of work.

The album opens with the very Katatonia-esque “Snowstorm”, a piece that had the participation of Frank Default (of Katatonia fame) on percussions and keyboards, giving this track a nice ethereal sound to it. The band continues with more Katatonia worship on “The Fairies’ Circle”, mainly on the distant vocal sounds and the overall depressive vibe. Frank Default makes another appearance on “Silence”, our favorite track of this release thanks to its very moody passages.

The band does a great job in crafting very direct and melancholic songs that will leave an impression on the listener and have high replay value, track like “Lilith” and “Holy Mountain” parts 1 and 2 are a perfect example of this. The inclusion of some Progressive and Post-Rock elements in the guitars makes songs more appealing to a broader range of people. “24 Megatons” features quite a nice bass guitar line that sounds like something Opeth or a similar band would have crafted themselves.

The album closes with another excellent track called “Equilibrium”, a song that nicely incorporates all elements that have been scattered around in this release, making it quite melodic and ‘aggressive’ at times. L’Alba Di Morrigan is a skilled band and all of the elements in their music are majestically crafted and brilliantly executed.

While the whole album is quite solid and effective, there is still a bit of mystery in terms of the true identity of the band. Borrowing a lot from Katatonia and other Post-Rock bands, there is just a bit of originality in their music. “The Essence Remains” is a very good album, but it just feels too much like other bands mashed together, hopefully the band truly develops their own identity in the future.

Release: March 26th, 2012

Country: Italy