THE ART OF BECOMING

There is some music so original and so oddball it is almost impossible to describe in words. For me, Minas Tirith delivers the prototype of undescribeable music. But I will try my best since this is the first review of this album. I will not be surprised if this is the only review of this album you will ever see in PA. The music is that original and impossible to penetrate.

The best label or slogan I can come up with is a detuned more insane version of the last Arcturus album. Minas Tirith's vocals are both pastorial and atonal. Strangely enough; they are beautiful too. The music is based on some very strange rhythm patterns which loosely reminds me about the Zeuhl scene. The music is delivered with bass, drums and guitars. The guitars are mostly delivered as rhythm guitars. Do not expect any guitar solos here. The music is not particular hard either. Neither is it particular metal too. A Child Is Born In Babylon is a fine example of atonal vocals, a good melody with some good rhythm guitars.

It is my view that Minas Tirith is the most original metal act ever to come out of Scandinavia and this album proves my point. The quality is good and I really like this album. I have been listening to it on and off since it was released. But I have yet to fully understand it. I guess both this album and myself is headcase. That explains why this is not an informative review, although I have done my best to describe the art of becoming in my piece. Without success, I fear.

3 stars

"The Art of Becoming" is the debut full-length studio album by Norwegian progressive metal act Minas Tirith. The album was released through Voices of Wonder in 1995. The band had been active in the Norwegian underground since 1989, releasing two avant garde tinged black/death metal demos and an EP.

...the music on "The Art of Becoming" still features traces of extreme metal but, the album is pre-dominantly a progressive metal album. The most prominant extreme metal feature is the occasional semi-growling vocals on the album. Mostly the vocals are clean sung though. Minas Tirith are a trio consisting of Frode Forsmo on bass and vocals, Stian Kraboel on guitar and Tony Kirkemo on drums and they have that distinct stripped down trio sound with a strong emphasis on the rythm section. Both bass and drums are very busy. I´m sometimes reminded of Rush.

"The Art of Becoming" is what I´d call an odd ball progressive metal release. It´s very eclectic with all sorts of musical playing styles and stylistic elements put in. It´s safe to say that Minas Tirith are not afraid to experiment. I admire their adventurous approach to writing music but there are a couple of issues with "The Art of Becoming" that drag my rating down. First of all the sound production is only semi-professional to my ears (the guitar sound in particular is rather powerless but the vocal production isn´t too successful either) and secondly the clean vocals are a bit "off". So while "The Art of Becoming" is certainly both an intriguing and original sounding progressive metal album, it´s not perfect by any means. a 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.