NEGLECTED FIELDS

I have to admit... The two tracks I had at my disposal digitally beforehand ("Teufelswerk" and "Sinesthetic") gave me a... we'll say interesting foretaste for this band. Some progressive tendencies; some interesting use of keyboards, for instance, sure; and talented guitar work, most assuredly of all. But honestly, it just sounds like their lead vocalist has a terrible head cold haha. Like, blow your nose, take some Robitussin and get back to me. Needless to say, if you're looking at my rating (and my boldings and super-italic-boldings), this album had all the desired affects of a great Progressive Metal album. And therefore, I was quite pleasantly surprised.

This first track, "Solar", would have been a far better introduction on its own, in my opinion, compared to the two aforementioned tracks. Again, great use of keyboards within this specific side and really on the whole of Extreme Metal. And all the guitar is really good, really tasteful, mixing intensity with melody. Again, the vocals are by far my least favorite element to all of this, but I'm sure many people will be undeterred by this. In its final moments, "Solar" is stripped away to clean guitars and glassy keyboards.

"The Spider's Kiss" is as intense as its name. The keyboards frequently mimic church pipe organ, which, of course, is quite fitting for this kind of music. Great main riff. As stated, the guitar is really my favorite element here. The rhythm shifts and we get a better glimpse at the abilities of the bassist. "Whatever that Tempts" is next, and it is ominous with its use of keys. The main riff and full instrumentation comes in then with the verse. Great guitar solo on this one. Definitely the most interesting composition thus far for me.

Moving right along, we have the boisterous "Feral Garden". This has a special sort of intensity and then... it feels like I spoke too soon, as this has a lot going on. Very fun and very interesting. Sort of all over the place in tone and with a dynamic intensity. With this one, now I get it. We get more melodic bass over more ominous key padding on "Presentiment". Near the middle, the beat picks up a hair, now in a hurried feel. In a more intense vibe, "The Human Abstract" starts off with a really cool, groovy quirk. My first thought was that this title must have been the inspiration for the band of the same name. Electric keys fill the spaces left by the start-stop syncopation of the guitar. About midway, they mix clean and dirty very nicely. The clean gives way to a whole other section with faux-horns on an even cooler feel. [I admit now, it's a bit hard to describe with greatly confident detail what's actually going on here.] Great, great song.

"Creaturesque" is next. More sort of neo-classical things going on here amidst the absolute brutality of their particular brand of Progressive Extreme Extreme Progressive Metal. About two minutes in, there's a sort of industrial bit, with electronic drums and light synths. As it approaches the middle, a really excellent, seemingly dual guitar solo begins over a wild rhythm. Then we have the not-at-all-problematically named "Once Carcass is Cold" haha. Pretty great riffage herein. After each verse, all falls away to this bizarre quiet. And finally, we have "Outro". I feel, as I did on another track (I'm honestly not sure which now), I hear sonic choices that remind me of bands like Scale The Summit to come, though likely ultimately these are callbacks/homages to Thrash. Great riffs herein. Great album closer.

True Rate: 4.5/5.0

You haven't listened to this cd yet? Well go find it and purchase it now, now, now!

When I first found this band I simply saw a metal band from Latvia, now that might be interesting. Who would have thought they would have created such a masterpiece and not be fairly known.

One of the first things you might notice is the sound of the guitar can be very similar to Atheist, and other bands, especially in the solos. A lot of the instruments sound similar to other progressive metal and technical metal bands yet it is done so well it never gets boring. This band has taken numerous influences from other bands, compiled them together, then added some Latvian influence of their own to give it a sound that cannot be found elsewhere. The synth is a large addition to this band that really gives it a great sound carefully choosing sounds and placing them along the song without ever being obnoxious like other bands like to do. This adds to the overall ambient feeling giving a large epic feeling that you cannot help but get into.

Black metal vocals are very apparent here and contrast greatly to the other instruments creating an intriguing sound making you want more with every passing second. Though with the vocals comes one small complaint is that I would like a little more variety with the vocals because the rest of the band is so progressive that it sometimes seems odd that the vocals have not really changed as well. And the only other complaint is that the last two songs,(one being a remix of other songs on the cd) do not give anything to the cd really. But because of what this band has already given me I cannot complain at all.

4.5/5 but im giving it 5 simply because of how much play time this cd got before I changed to another cd.

Some say that with Splenetic Neglected Fields offers more accessible, "listener-friendlier" music than with previous albums, but it seems an exaggeration to me. Although they have a new guitarist, since their previous record the music played by Neglected Fields hasn't particularly changed: it's the same sophisticated, symphonic technical death metal as on Mephisto Lettonica. A nice addition is the new guitarist's "backing growls". My favorite tracks are Splenetic/Confusion and Khert Neter - it's hard to choose, though.

With Mephisto Lettonica Neglected Fields brought into progressive metal something really new and refreshing, while on Splenetic they are somewhat repeating themselves. Still, it is an excellent album, I give it four stars. For those who are not familiar with Neglected Fields, I'd better suggest to start with Mephisto Lettonica.

Venomously beautiful

"So charming, attractive, delicious and sweet..." Is it possible to describe Mephisto Lettonica more precisely than these words from the song The Spider's Kiss do? (Ok, of course, it is - I'm just having difficulties to silence the aesthetic ecstasy that overwhelms me every time I listen to this album.) Mephisto Lettonica is the second full-length album of Latvian technical/progressive death metal band Neglected Fields. Among their influences are such classic progressive metal acts as Cynic, Death and Atheist, but the band manages to create a unique sound of their own. On Mephisto Lettonica, song structures are quite complicated, but at the same time the music is very melodic and in some way even symphonic (one can hear some symphonic black metal influences, too). As far as I know, some people can't accept Sergey's vocal style (it's also closer to black metal than typical death metal growling), but it's a matter of taste. The best tracks on the album, IMHO, are... Oh, forget it, all of them are excellent. Check out the original outro!

I give the album five stars without hesitation - it IS a masterpiece. A must-have for progressive metal/technical death metal fans.