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Arthemesia > Devs - Iratvs > Reviews
Arthemesia - Devs - Iratvs

"Summoned by the Ancestor of Magick..." - 95%

BlackMetal213, February 1st, 2018

Arthemesia was a very obscure black metal band to come out of Finland in the late 1990s. Their debut album, "Devs - Iratvs", was released in 2001 on Native North Records. What's really interesting about this band is how unknown they were yet the legendary Jari Mäenpää himself played guitars and keyboards on this record. I listened to this shortly after getting into Ensiferum and Wintersun for the first time, around nine years ago, and right then and there, I was blown away. How could such a solid sounding band go so unnoticed? It's quite the mystery.

Especially for a black metal album, this thing is super easy to digest and listen to. Really, casual fans of extreme metal, or metal in general so long as they don't mind harsh vocals, could listen to this and probably get some enjoyment out of it. Why? Because it boasts a very clean, yet well done, production sound. The instruments are all there and they sound polished to the point of sounding good rather than being too clean and shiny. Also, this is a melodic black metal album, as opposed to a standard black metal one. You can expect to hear freezing riffs played at blistering speeds and a chilly atmosphere but there are plenty of moments of melody here, and some acoustic segments in "Universal Black" (which sounds quite similar to Dissection in the intro). "Ancestor of Magick" is my favorite song on this album, if that could not be implied by my titling of this review. This song contains what I believe to be the best riffing on the album with a very masterful guitar solo. With Jari handling this, you really wouldn't expect anything less. "Lifemocker", "Blade Circle", and "Heaven Ablaze" also come close to this. These songs, while melodic (especially "Lifemocker"), have a bit more of a rough black metal style to them in comparison to "Universal Black" and "Ancestor of Magick".

The vocals, man. They're hateful! They sound pretty good, sounding similar to very early Children of Bodom at times. There are clean vocals here as well and they are beautiful. In fact, Jari handles the clean vocals. Which, for some reason to me, he sounds a little different on this album than he usually does. It could be the way they were recorded or him just trying out a different singing style, or the fact that they're very quiet in comparison to the rest of the music. This is really one of my only quarrels with the album. These clean vocals were recorded at way too low of a volume and aren't given much room to breathe. Really, this is my only issue with the production. Hell, even the bass is audible! You'd think such an underground black metal band would have tried to sound a bit more raw, but nope!

Back when I was younger and was really into drawing logos from my favorite bands to slide into my school binders, I drew this in a fairly large scale on a piece of paper and slid it into my History binder. I still have that drawing somewhere back in Virginia. This album is something that really should be listened to by black metal fans, or fans of Jari Mäenpää, because more often than not, that would be the reason anyone would likely come accross this. Trust me, you'll be happy you did!

one of the best melodic black metal bands - 97%

BorknagarCOB, June 6th, 2005

ArthemesiA is one of the best, if not the best melodic black metal band i've ever heard. I came across them when I was looking at the information on the Wintersun band line-up. One of my favorite parts about this band is their spectacular line-up, featuring Dr. KH aka Kai Hahto on drums(Rotten Sound, Wintersun), Jari Mäenpää on guitar(ex-Ensiferum, Wintersun), Jukka-Pekka Miettinen on guitar(Ensiferum). I really didn't know what to expect except the fact that the drums would probably kick my ass(in a good way) since they were being played by Kai Hahto(one of my favorite drummers). Devs - Iratvs is the first and only full-length release by this band, and it made it's debut in 2001.

The first track, "Blade Circle" starts out with silence and then drums start out and get reptitively louder until the song offically starts. The first song makes a big impact, with some great melodic guitar riffing present and brutal and aggressive drumming. The vocals have a very dark, and grim style present in their appearing sound. Half way through, the song stops and goes into a different style guitar sound and then jumps right back into the brutal aggression played out by the drums and guitar work. The song is definately a great intro track that can get you hooked on the album, you just want to hope this is all they bring to the table. Well if it adds anymore, later through the song, they throw into a shred-style guitar solo that only lasts for a few seconds. The 2nd track, "Universal Black" starts out very soft with guitar picking, which is then joined by a basic drum rhythm. The vocals are whispered in a more clean manner then before. The song adds a louder riff and a more complex drum pattern. Then adding to the song are a new style of vocals that you didn't hear from the first track, the vocals are now of a death metal growl style. The musicianship in this song is simply oustanding. The guitar riffing is the best i've ever heard from a melodic black metal band. Half way through the song, we also witness something new, which is the mixture of grim vocal work and clean vocal techniques. Near the end of the song, another guitar solo is added into the mix. The 3rd track, "The Breeze Of Grief" opens with some great piano work, which is then mixed with a great riff and technical drum work. The vocals are also more of a clean sense for a few seconds, then turned into a tremendous black metal scream. That pattern repeats itself pretty much throughout the rest of the song. The 4th track, "Draconis Infernvs" starts out with heavy metal style riffing and a great guitar lick, accompanied with great drumming and the traditional black metal shriek. The drum work is heart-pounding and faster paced. Half way through, a great keyboard mixture is added into the song. The 5th track, "Ancestor Of Magick" starts out in a classical sense, and is added with heavy guitar and drum work. The grim vocals are back into effect on this song. The drums feel like they're being aggressively pounded into your head(in a good way). Then the vocals are mixed with two different voices, both being a different style of clean vocal techniques. This song have a very depressive feeling to it. Then 3 quarters of the way through is a guitar solo that left me starstruck, for the simple fact i've never heard this in a melodic black metal song. The classical elements in this song are brought back into play more near the end of the song. The 6th track "Lifemocker" the intro is surprisingly really epic, with a great viking metal style riff. Songs like these pretty much can show why having 2 guitar players(great ones at that) is such a tremendous benefit. Nearly half way through the song slows down and there is a man shouting in clean vocals with a piano/keyboard playing, which then transitions back to the amazing riff work and drum structuring. Another spectacular guitar solo is added into this song which has great presence on the song itself. The 7th track, "Heaven Ablaze" is a basic heavy intro that has been provided already on the album, but is still great in its own way. The song isn't nearly one of the best songs on the album, only featuring what has been displayed on the album already. The 8th track, "Celebration Of The Heaven Lost" opens with a superb melodic guitar riff and great grim vocal work. A little over half way the song slows down and the drumming is just laid out across the table. This track has some of the better grim vocal work out of every song on the album. The final track, "Whore of the Satan's Night" is 10+ minutes long in length, and the first half of the song is pretty much the same structure/formula the other songs were based off of. The rest of the song has some minutes of silence and a spoken sentence, accompanied by some organ tunes, at the end.

This CD is tremendous and i'm definately glad I picked it up. The mixing of the CD is done great, nothing is drowned out by everything else, everything is mixed perfectly. The quality isn't much less than superb. The structure used to create each melodic track is what some of these other bands should be looking at. Great melodic riffing + melodic intro + amazing drum structures and rhythms + guitar solos + keyboard/pinaos + great grim and clean vocal work = a damn great tune that doesn't get too repetitive. This is a MUST have for any black metal fan, melodic black metal fan, and i'm even gonna go out on a limb and say any viking metal fan.