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A fantastic sampling of what's to come from Mithras in 2012.-
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| Mithras: Time Never Lasts |
Experimental Brutal Death Metal
Galactus Records
September 1st, 2011
- Time Never Lasts - 5:36
- Inside the Godmind - 5:10
- Tomb of King (Live) - 5:08
- Wrath of God (Live) - 4:33
- Beyond the Eyes of Man (Live) - 6:58
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| Review Information |
Release length: 27:26
Review posted on November 23rd, 2011
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| | Overall Score: 9.5/10 |
 
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| Discography |
Discography covers all information available up to day of review and is updated if future albums are reviewed. |
| Full-Length(s): |
Forever Advancing... Legions (2002) • World beyond the Veil (2003) • Behind the Shadows Lie Madness (2007)
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| EP(s): |
Time Never Lasts (2011)
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| Demo(s): |
Dreaming in Splendour (2000) • Tomb of Kings (2000) • Bequeth Thy Visions (2002)
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| Compilation(s): |
Sands of Time - Early Demos & Rarities (2010)
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| Review |
When it comes to the Brutal Death Metal scene, there are a lot of unrecognized bands to be found. However, there really aren't many that deserve your attention as much as Mithras does. Formed around 1998 in the United Kingdom, this Experimental group takes the style seriously and makes it more of a journey or experience in their albums instead of just a full on brutal assault. The group has issued three full-length albums since their debut in 2002 and a compilation that hit back in 2010 that collects their three demo recordings. But, in 2012, the band plans to issue a new full-length effort through Galactus Records, and decided to issue Time Never Lasts, an EP centered around that track off the album to prepare their fans and all newcomers for what's to come. Does this five track compilation offer up more of the group's impressive material, or do these two new songs and three live tracks just come off as a collection to pass up?
After about four years since their last album, Behind the Shadows Lie Madness, it's great to finally have some new material from this group, and it's even better knowing it's just a sampling. Mithras offers up a great audio quality to the EP for the first two new recordings here. The songs are definitely on the cleaner edge, but it has a bit of fogginess to the guitars with their lighter sound and distortion to allows the band's experimental atmospheric traits to show through, and allows the deep, twanging, and very loud bass to make a strong impact. The drums here are absolutely fantastic and match that slightly misty guitar approach well with it's clear cymbols that crash loud enough to be heard and make a difference to the music while ringing out in a slightly haunting manner that suits the environment of the songs, and the same can be said about the snares but sounding thick instead of crashing of course. The bass kicks are simply amazing here, coming through loud and clear with a thick sound that doesn't go off into that clicking territory, coming at the listener literally like machine gun blasts the entire time. To put it simply, they come off exactly like what you would come to expect these kicks to sound like on any Metal album. Vocally, it's clear as well, taking on more of the cleaner Swedish Death Metal kind of growl, suiting the already cleaner, yet still heavily brutalizing audio quality nicely.
As stated, the EP starts off with two new original compositions. The title track "Time Never Lasts" kicks things off the right way to get listeners very excited for what's to come. The track's slow, catchier, brutal approach sounds good, but isn't anything that will immediately whip the listener into a frenzy, but that's the glory of the track. As you progress through it, more seems to be added to it such as an increase in speed or just more technicality, as well as atmospheric chords that are haunting and astral that eventually meld with additional keyboards that set up a more space-driven sound in the most hard hitting of manners. The vocals here are kept to a minimum, which is a superb idea given how well the music just takes the listener away with it's many shifts throughout and the natural transitions and environments it carries for each and every alteration in music. The shift between this track and "Inside the Godmind" is well worth pointing out as well. Though neither track genuinely bleeds into one to the other, "Time Never Lasts" ends with an additional surge of music that feels slightly different from the rest of the track, which fades out like the false ending before it, and then "Inside the Godmind" comes in with similar guitar work and distortion at it's start. This causes the two tracks to sound like it's still the same song, and will easily trick anyone not paying attention to whatever displays the track number or it's specific name. However, it's almost like night and day between these two. While "Time Never Lasts" was heavily atmospheric, "Inside the Godmind" focuses more on sheer unrelenting brutality. The drums pound away with unbridled fury as the guitars race to match it while allowing some heavily echoed moments to establish some atmosphere that works well before shifting into slow, absolutely bone-jarring passages of haunting effects and vocal distortions with deeper gutturals all clearly intent on creating the most uncomfortable vibe to the song possible. This goal is easily succeeded, and finds "Inside the Godmind" as the perfect compliment of brutality and fury to the title track, making you immediately want to go back to the beginning just to experience these two specific tracks again.
While the first two songs of the EP are simply stunning, as well as clearly are the meat and potatoes of the release, the band has put together three live songs for this release as well. The audio quality here is actually really clear as well, though clearly still has a bit of a rawer sound compared to the studio quality of the first two tracks. There's no loss of brutality between the two audio sounds, showcased well on "Tomb of Kings (Live)." Neither one is more brutal, and all three seem linked together much like the first two tracks were, as if from the same live set from one song to the next, though this and other live tracks really show a strong Brutal Death Metal band that literally sounds the same on stage as they do on their albums. This ends up being very reassuring for fans and shows a group that has the talent to back up what their full-length releases offer. The only issue with these recordings comes up with the guitar solos. "Beyond the Eyes of Man" feels a little open when it hits near the end of the song. Other then that you can claim the song "Tomb of Kings" just lasts a little too long, which it does. Had the band cut the track length by roughly a minute, this track would feel like a brutalizing beast, but in that last sixty seconds you can find yourself saying that you got the point and just wishing the band would move on a little quicker. This track makes a great choice for the EP however, as it's still one of their best offerings despite the drawn out ending.
Mithras made the right choice by deciding to issue an EP to brace their listeners for the upcoming full-length. Time Never Lasts shows a band that has grown well over the years and is ready to tear you apart through a Brutal Death Metal experience you won't commonly find in the field. Between the intense yet engrossingly atmospheric original cuts that will have you demanding the impending full-length be released quicker, and the live recordings that show a talented band that can destroy you live as easily as they can in the studio, it's undeniable that this release is a must own for fans of the band, as well as the style.
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Digital review copy of this release provided by:
Galactus Records. |
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