DIES IRAE - Secret Veils of Passion CD review

DIES IRAE - Secret Veils of Passion CD
Chaos Records
Genre: Melodic Death / Dark Metal
Rating: 3/5

Other than this band's fans in their homeland of Mexico (which in all honesty are quite a lot) I don't see how the rest of the world is gonna get excited over this band's return. I mean when I first saw their name in the email package my first thoughts were "that's an old death metal band". My second one was "I bet it's a re-issue". I was right on the first part but that's only because there are many bands with that name so it was a good guess. But just for the record lets see a show of hands to answer this question. How many people out there, not from Mexico of course, have a copy of this band's 1998 LP Etherial? How about their Naive LP from 2001? Yes I thought so. Well for those of you who do remember this band prepare for something different because whatever you thought of them before might change, for the better or worse depending on your tastes. There are flourishes of melodic death metal on Secret Veils of Passion which will coax old listeners into picking this up. Songs like opener "Want", "For" and "Night" clearly show their roots. Before I even go more in depth to their music I probably should explain their song titles. For this release the band used these one word titles that rhyme with a corresponding number. For example "Tree" is three, "Sex" is six, "Hate" is eight and so on. It's a fairly interesting way to showcase their material.

As for their other songs the band meshes various elements of progressive or post rock, gothic sequences, funky jazz and blues especially on "Sex" which could be a radio / video track for easy listeners, even some doom or at least structures that remind me of the present day output by a few legendary English doom outfits who have mellowed out. Obviously this one isn't something I'd crank up at a party but I won't dismiss it outright. DIES IRAE have crafted an interesting release, which won't be out until January 2012, that would appeal to all of you who crave darker themed metal. I have to say that the nine plus minutes of "E7en" really reminded me of something one of the English post doom acts I alluded to earlier would do. If you take Secret Veils of Passion as a whole its more of a varied musical experience for anyone looking for that broad sampling of sounds all in one package. I admit I'm kind of a neanderthal when it comes to eclectic or esoteric sounding bands. I like my variety as long as it's from one CD to another and not all on one. This release did put me in a mood though one in which I wanted to get out of as fast as possible. So you'll excuse me while I drag my knuckles out of here and head for the safe secure realm of some raw black metal.

Label: http://www.chaos-records.com/label/

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/diesiraeonline

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