Expulsion from the Realms of Light - Encircled by Fire -

Melek Taus has one of the most annoying logos I've ever seen. It's a good logo but took me an hour trying to work out what the band name was. Melek Taus is a one man atmospheric black metal act, where not much is known about the band. Judging by the lyrics, it seems that the person behind this band released this EP in the memory of his mother. I sure do feel sorry for him, he screams his lungs out in this EP.

Expulsion from the Realms of Light - Encircled by Fire is made up of two instrumentals (with spoken vocals) and two melodic black metal songs. We Unite is a slowed paced melancholic piano song where Krille is saying that he can't wait to reunite with his mother. He screams out how much he misses her. When I listen to this track over and over, it seems to me as if he recorded this EP after her death to blow away the sadness and anger. This song releases so much emotion and sadistic atmospheres.

The two melodic black metal songs consist of Krille singing so harsh but yet right on the tune. The guitars and drums production is not as good as the keyboards/pianos production. Regardless, the songs are still listenable. It's not as bad as raw black metal. The riffs are interesting and there's a lot of chugging. When chugging's time is up, there are multiple solos in both songs which makes these black metal songs even more melodic. As melodic as they get, they also are very depressive and leave you with melancholic feelings. I swear sometimes I feel the need to cry after hearing these songs. The outro A Dedication To The Northern Nature is like the intro, it is made up of piano notes for the whole song with Krille's shrieks. The difference between We Unite and A Dedication To The Northern Nature, is that the piano on A Dedication To The Northern Nature is slowly played. It is the last song, so he wasn't going to burst out any more anger as he has had enough of this sorrow and he should move on. As I mentioned in the title, melancholic melodies are everywhere.

You probably think it's a boring release, but it's not because it's a fairly short release. If i bought this back in 1997, I would've known there was no future for Melek Taus. This niche project was made dedicated to Krille's mother. Highly recommended for atmospheric/melodic black metal fans.

I had heard of Melek Taus a long time ago, and the track "Encircled By Fire", which is one of the greatest song's I've heard in a long time. That one song mad eme look everywhere for this cd, but I was extremely let down by the rest of the cd. The rest of the cd's not horrible, but pales in comparison to "Encircled By Fire".

We Unite - This is a slow piano only song and is very emotional. Sounding like something you'd hear from a doom band, only with black metal vocals. This song seems to be a song about someones love dying, and the man singing it dying too, and meeting her in heaven/hell, wherever she might've gone. And it's a truely beautiful song, but doesn't fit in well with the rest of the cd, or at least shouldn't be the first song, maybe being the last song would've helped it alot..

Encircled By Fire - Now this song I love. It's the fastest song on the cd and has a nice riff playing throughout it all and excellent drumming. The guys vocals have a lot of emotion behind them, and you can feel sadness/anger in the songs when there are vocals in them. This song speeds along to about 2:30 into it, then slows down, then the music cuts out for a bit, just nice keyboards. The guy then talks in a normal blackened voice, weird, but he's really just talking, but it's still got a little scream in it. It's a really great part in this song. After that it speeds up faster then before with nice slow keyboards over the song that really add a nice touch. Another 2 minutes aaaaaand, it's over.

Where The Forest Never Ends - I hate this song. It has a "chunky" guitar riff throughout it and it doesn't go with the musical style at all. This song for me is hard to even listen to after "Encircled By Fire" and I always want to fast forward through it, but then the song after this isn't even much better. This song is mostly slow paced, near the end it gets faster, but the guy starts screaming louder and loses that great vocal sound he had earlier and ruins it. I hate this song.

A Dedication To The Northern Nature - Another slow song, starting off much like "We Unite", except this is just a plain outro with some spoken parts sprinkled throughout it. It's a decent ending, but not for this cd. The same keyboard bit plays through out it all, until it has a minute left and it gets a bit louder, and a new keyboard effect added. Could this get better?! No, it slows down to before and then just cuts off.

This cd only gets the 72 is got for having "Encircled By Fire" on it. "We Unite" is another good track, but not great. The other 2 tracks are just plain bad and shouldnt be on this cd at all.