Tanelorn Records – 2011 – Serbia
“Opus Draconis” is the first release of this Serbian Epic Black Metal band which is available for a wider audience. If I have to compare the music of this band then I would say that they sound like a mixture of Arcturus and Bal-Sagoth. On this release are 4 songs, from which 1 is an older song from the time when this band still worked under the name Esgaroth. 1 song is a cover version of the song “Legend of the master ring” by Summoning and the other 2 songs represent the sound of this band. The first song here on this EP is the song “Monarchy divine” which is from the Esgaroth period. Comparing this song to the other 2 Numenor song, it sounds a bit harder with not so many orchestral parts. Still, this song is very bombastic and it shows the beginning of the path this band walked from 2006 when this song was recorded. In this song are many tempo changes which makes it very interesting and also the atmosphere in this song is from time to time a bit grim. The next song here is the song “Once we were kings” which is a newer song. This song shows already that nowadays this band uses more orchestral parts to make the atmosphere of their music. Also, comparing to the older song, it sounds a bit heavier. Sometimes there are some Behemoth elements in the 2 newer songs hearable. The vocals in this song go from grim Black Metal, over clear vocals to spoken parts. The clear vocals are better done in this song comparing to the clean vocals in “Monarchy Divine”. Also, there are a lot of progressive parts in the song which are better done than in the previous one. The next song is also a newer track. “Aeons of Magick” continues there where “Once we were kings” stopped. The beginning sounds a bit strange. Like it come from somewhere far away. But, I could say that this is just a trick to make the listener listen very carefully before the bombastic part start to blow everything away. From time to time, the guitars are not so good to hear because the orchestral parts are very in the front. But that has also a reason. This way it sounds like the guitars and the orchestral parts having a duel. The last song here is the cover version of the Summoning song. Comparing to the original version of this song, there are not so many changes. The production of this song is clearer comparing to the original which allows to the listener to here some parts of this song even better. Also, the samples from some various LOTR plays give another touch to this song.
9/10
