SIRIUS B

This time, the band used a huge orchestra - instruments and singers - so 171 people were involved in the making of the album. This resulted in a very symphonic album - the most complete work to date from the band. "Sirius B" is the second part of a double album and contains 11 songs (of the 55 written by the band since "Secret of the runes"). A true masterpiece.

"The Blood Of Kingu" is a really heavy opener with metal vocalist Mats Leven very present. "Son Of The Sun" is a great song with a catchy melody and female solo plus choir vocals. 'The Khlysti Evangelist" starts with a solo from a male opera singer (with russian lyrics - awesome intro), and then turns really heavy with Mats Leven on vocals again. "Dark Venus Persephone" is more mid paced, with lead vocals from a female opera singer again. "Kali Yuga" is an awesome 9+ minute song, with a great oriental feeling, divided in two totally different parts. Part I is slow paced with Piotr Wawrzeniuk's characteristic voice. Part II is fast and furious with a mix of choir and Mats Leven's power metal voice. "The Wondrous World Of Punt" starts slowly like a ballad with choir and acoustic guitar and speeds up toward the end of the song. "Melek Taus" again sees the choir singing with a quite heavy melody. "Call Of Dagon" has many musical tempo changes - slow then fast then slow. "Sirius B" is a strange mellow song - lyrics are minimum with only two words endlessly repeated. But the masterpiece on this album is the closing song "Voyage Of Gurdjieff": this is maybe the heaviest song ever written by the band since the early death metal days, but it is sung completely by the choir and that gives a tremendous emotional feeling to the song.

Rating: 100/100 (one of the really few...)