CoC : Unholy - Rapture : Review

Unholy - _Rapture_
(Avantgarde, 1998)
by: Pedro Azevedo (7 out of 10)

This certainly is one of the strangest albums I have heard in a very long time. I could label _Rapture_ as mostly very slow, often repetitive, depressive doom/death; the melodies are few and almost withdrawn. Totaling 67:47 minutes, time doesn't seem to have been a problem when _Rapture_ was recorded. After a bland couple of opening tracks comes the main highlight, "For the Unknown One": slow, devastating guitars and few keyboard melodies (the keyboards remain on the background throughout most of the album), with an unusual and interesting female voice. Veera Muhli does indeed have the kind of voice that makes you want her to 'stay'; you don't want her to 'leave', but the music is eventually over after ten minutes and you're left alone again. (This kind of effect was even stronger with early 3rd and the Mortal's Kari Rueslaetten or The Gathering's Anneke van Giersbergen, but Veera's voice is still very pleasant.) And so, alone to face the barren landscape presented by the music ahead, you find the fifteen minutes long "Wunderwerck": a piece of very, very slow and heavy doom/death with funeral-like organs. "After God" is faster than the previous songs, more riff-based -- still unusual doom/death, but somewhat catchy. The short "Unzeitgeist" shows how things can get stranger: screamed vocals, crazy bass and keyboard work, totally different from everything else on the album. Finally, two tracks, around ten minutes each. "Wretched" brings more funeral keyboards and repetitive, crushing, dirge-like drumming and riffing with death vox. "Delunge", an interesting doomy instrumental track, closes _Rapture_. This could have been a great album; however, some of the album's qualities are a bit let down as it often becomes somewhat excessively repetitive.

(article published 7/6/1998)

CHATS
1/9/1998	P Azevedo	Unholy: Tears From the Thousand Lakes

ALBUMS
12/8/1999	P Azevedo	9	Unholy - Gracefallen