Well this is a silly little album isn’t it? Former Tristania member Morten Veland resurfaces, along with a new goth metal band claiming to hoist the glory of the masterpiece Beyond the Veil. However, At Sixes and Sevens rather manages to create a watered down knockoff that could never compare to the album which I would go as far as to call the definition of what a fantastic record of this genre should sound like. It’s like they really weren’t trying on this one, just relying on the name and the spiteful message against Tristania’s recent and controversially experimentally album World of Glass. Said album is still excellent in my mind and trounces this blatant and exhausting knockoff. The sheer ability is there, but this was not a 100% effort.
One thing I noticed right away was the lack of a strong female lead to the band. Vocals are dominated by Veland’s typical goth metal growling (not surprising considering the premise this group is based on of course) and despite the fact they denounce the latest evolutions in the Tristania camp, there is a steady but not as up-front electronic presence here as well.
The usual stuff is included: choirs, Celtic instruments, power riffs and everything else played ever so half-assed by a band I deem heap worthy with the countless others biting off this style. There is some moving passages hear in there, but overall this album has been done way too many times to care anymore.
This could have been something special, but maybe next album Mr. Veland will get over himself and put out the essential record I know he is certainly capable of.
