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An album you simply must have in your collection.-
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| The Agonist: Lullabies for the Dormant Mind |
Melodic Death Metal, Metalcore
Century Records
February 23rd, 2009
- The Tempest (The Siren's Song; The Banshee's Cry) - 4:46
- ...And Their Eulogies Sang Me To Sleep. - 3:32
- Thank You, Pain. - 3:44
- Birds Elope With The Sun - 4:29
- Waiting Out The Winter - 4:03
- Martyr Art - 4:31
- Globus Hystericus - 3:41
- Swan Lake, Op. 20 - Scene, Art 2 #10 - Tchaikovsky (A Cappella) - 2:53
- The Sentient - 3:39
- When The Bough Breaks - 4:13
- Chlorpromazine - 4:07
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| Review Information |
Release length: 43:38
Review posted on August 8th, 2009
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| | Overall Score: 9/10 |
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| Review |
Lullabies For The Dormant Mind is easily on of the most beautiful, well constructed melodic death metal albums you will have heard in a long time. It's also a total surprise release, given how mediocre the band's debut album, Once Only Imagined was. The Agonist have released their second full length, and what a release it is. Blending some tough as nails music and vocals with beautiful choruses, singing, and often gothic-oriented artistic lyrics and musical moments, this release is sure to please anyone looking for something different amongst the flood of similar sounding bands.
The tracks on this release really do run the gambit. You have heavy as hell tracks like their single "...And Their Eulogies Sang Me To Sleep" and "Matyr Art", to beautiful songs like "Waiting Out The Winter" and the band's rendition of "Swan Lake". But the real stand out of this release is easily the female vocals. While her shouts don't hold the same bite as those found on the more recent Arch Enemy releases, her singing voice is absolutely jaw dropping and enough to melt any male metal fan's heart. The band does take some musical inspirations from the metalcore style, having some two-step in their music on various songs, as well as a breakdown on "Globus Hystericus". "When The Bough Breaks" does have one, but it is blended in so seemlessly that you probably won't even notice it, or any of the others on the album if there happens to be more, as these are the only two that really stood out.
The only moment on the album that really makes no sense is the very start of the track "...And Their Eulogies Sang Me To Sleep.", which is the band's heaviest song. The vocalist makes some weird noise, as if she went to scream, but instead wound up belching. "Swan Lake" has nothing wrong with it, but sounds out of place. While it could be considered as an interlude or something along those lines, it would have made one hell out an outro to the album as well, or at least the second to last track, having the song sort of bleed in as an introduction to a climactic ending, which really should have been the very heavy track "The Sentient". So, in essence, these two should have been the closer tracks to this release.
The Agonist have put out a release that you simply must have in your collection. Lullabies For A Dormant Mind is the perfect mixture of insanity and beauty, and has something for everyone. This lesser known band will be one to keep an eye on in the future, and hopefully their next release will have the same quality, and won't be that far off in the future.
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