Silence of the World Beyond

A Canorous Quintet hail from Sweden and as such, play a brand of Gothenburg melodic death metal directly associated with their homeland. Their debut Silence of the World Beyond, landed in 1996 and at the time when fellow countrymen In Flames, Dark Tranquility and Gates of Ishtar were gaining a lot of momentum within the melodic death scene. The movement as a whole had been gaining speed since At the Gates and Hypocrisy lit the world on fire with their early works in the genre and the time was ripe for new bands to show off their chops.

The music on Silence of the World Beyond is a combination of At the Gates and Dissection; a blend of death and black metal that dwells in the sounds of macabre vocals and melodic instrumentation. As with most melodic death, the guitars take center stage and immediate hook the listener with strong and catchy leads. The riffs keep the focus on the melodic nature of the music, while the rhythms provide a powerful display of time shifts and solos. The use of tremolo picking adds to the ferocity of the album and makes for an excellent harmonization when guitars play side by side. The bass guitar, although makes its appearance throughout the album, is not necessarily featured as the twin guitars tend to garner most of the attention. When the bass is heard, it makes its presence known by churning out thick and bouncy chords that add an extra layer to the music.

The harsh and raspy vocals are not uncommon to the genre, but they offer more than simply a standard sound. With such beautiful melodies created by the music, the shriek like echoes of the vocals provide a bitter sweet contrast to the melodic atmosphere, which results in a pleasant yet frightening experience all in one sitting. Yes, they are familiar to the scene, but remember, a voice is an instrument and much like blast beats are almost always associated with death metal, raspy vocals go hand in hand with the Gothenburg style. It’s the shtick of the style and on Silence of the World Beyond not only are they well sung, but they mesh well with the other instruments creating a cohesive unit.

The drums are manned by Fredrik Andersson, who is best known for his work with Amon Amarth, which now that you know that, will note the similarities. I don’t mean to say that this sounds like Amon Amarth in the purest sense, but the powerful and deep bass sounding drums that would appear on Amon Amarth are clearly present on Silence of the World Beyond. Here they help add to the rhythms and inject a nice punch to the overall intensity of the album, but also provide a nice base sound for the guitars to flourish over top.

A Canorous Quintet’s debut although not dissimilar to many other releases rooted in the Gothenburg sound at the time, is well executed slab of Blackened melodic death metal. The speed of the guitars, power of the drums and furious vocals will satisfy fans among various genres of black and death metal like. Fans of At the Gates, Gates of Ishtar and Ablaze My Sorrow should not miss out on Silence of the World Beyond.

Highlights: “The Orchid’s Sleep” “Spellbound” “In the Twilight of Fear”

Into the Abyss of Oblivion

I can still remember the day I’ve heard about A CANORUS QUINTET for the first time. I was reading this Polish magazine called Mystic Art Magazine, back in 1996, where I've found interview with the band, as well as one song on a compilation CD. MYSTIC Production was also a label, which released a tape version of “Silence of the World Beyond” on Polish market. To be honest A CANORUS QUINTET didn’t impress mu much back then, I felt bored a bit with their offering of melodic death / black metal.

Of course nowadays I have completely different opinion. Why? Well, I guess I matured a lot, but first of all this music has aged so well that nowadays it may be even seen as a cult. At the present I even think this is one of the best albums of this kind of Swedish death / black metal that were recorded in the second half of the 90’s, together with VINTERLAND, SACRAMENTUM or DAWN CDs.

When I listen to “Silence of the World Beyond” right after the A CANORUS QUINTET's debut MCD, I feel an enormous progress they’ve made. It went into something above the simple AT THE GATES / DISSECTION mediocre copy. A CANOROUS QUINTET managed to complete their own style within the characteristic Swedish sound. First of all, it’s far more aggressive and uncompromising than most of the bands from this category. These Swedes really took it to the line between death and black metal, almost like VINTERLAND did (but they were 60 to 40 % for black metal influence I guess). But what differs A CANORUS QUINTET is their strong heavy metal influence. Every song here is damn fast or mid paced at least, so it gives an album a hellish dose of energy. The band got rid of the doom metal elements from the MCD, which I think is for better - even though "Of Tears" was so good... But with that change their music feels like an unrelenting beast someone accidentally unleashed. To put it simply, this CD kicks ass from the start to the end.

Of course A CANOROUS QUINTER delivers many atmospheric parts as well, every song is damn melodic and catchy, but these guys did a great job finding a proper balance between the energy / aggressiveness and atmosphere - without making their music over-melancholic or too slow. Some of these melodies are just wonderful, delivering so many emotions you cannot walk away from it. There’s even that 2 minute long instrumental song called “The Last Journey”, which starts with keyboards and has those wonderful guitar melodies / solos, which are totally melancholic. And such songs like “Spellbound” are just damn angry beasts. The production of the album is really great and the vocals are just amazing – Marten screams his guts out like a maniac, even more that Tampa of AT THE GATES.

Ufff.... Nothing more to say, just that it's a damn great album, definitely a biggest achievement of these Swedes. Great job and highly recommended stuff! My best songs: “Spellbound”, “Dream Reality”, “The Orchid’s Sleep”.

First and foremost, in regard to ACQ's name - I actually found their name to be unusual, yet rather original. I by no means thought or think that it was a stupid or inappropriate name for the band. I'd go as far as to say that I wish that they kept the name. It stands out.

I regard this as the best melodic black metal - yes, melodic black metal - yes - THE BEST - disc released, to date. Yes, even over Vinterland. Even over others. I see that they're listed as melodic death metal and such, but this disc leans way more, musically, towards the blackened side of metal.

Since I first got this CD, way back when, the riffing always impressed me. As I tend to mention in most (all?) of my reviews, I feel that great riffs are the very foundation of any good metal disc and/or metal band. Without lasting well-written riffs, metal would be nothing. "The Black Spiral" is particularly notable when referring to this subject. The track opens with an unusual but great riff, and is followed with what is definitely one of the best and most brilliant melodic black metal riffs ever.

The disc never loses its appeal from start to finish. It's a true "cover to cover" release, so to speak. As I said, I've had it for years, and still to this day, any time it comes up on random on my metal-packed 250GB MP3 player that's on perpetual random, it gets turned up. It's truly no less impressive than the first time I heard it.

What keeps this disc out of the 90's rating bracket is the production. The disc doesn't sound awful, but it does sound pretty "thin". This is surprising considering that Tagtgren did the disc. It's over a decade old, sure, but the recording technology was there at that time, and I don't feel that good ol' Pete really took full advantage of it.

"Silence..." has a couple absolutely timeless songs, in addition to "The Black Spiral". "In The Twilight Of Fear" is one of them. A definite extreme metal classic, if you will. It seems that all quality extreme metal is overlooked to some degree, but I'm certain that this disc was, even moreso. I'm sure that based on the age of this disc it's probably a whore to find, but do yourself a favor and do what it takes to find it.

It’s terrible how A Canorous Quintet (ACQ) would turn into Melodeath Band X about a decade after this album’s release. However in this period of history, these guys are more like a thinner Amon Amarth aka some good shit. The previous reviewer brought this up, and he wasn’t that far off. I didn’t pick this comparison up at first, but after reading what he wrote, it became very apparent that these guys are pretty much a precursor to the genuine sound of Amon Amarth (albeit with much less umph and Viking themes).

The riffs gallop as they would on any Amarth track with some sort of epic feel to it, but what ACQ lacks is production. Whatever the reason, don’t go in expecting a fine job. Not to say it’s atrocious, but it passes well enough for a melodic death debut. I expected more from my nigga Tagtgren and his Abyss Studio. The riffs can be very thin or, when the bass in its rare times decides to show up, pretty thick – most of the time though its just tremolo picking throughout. Regardless, each riff is a fine melody at heart until it slows down to a thrashier one.

One aspect about this band I enjoy is their solos. There are only a couple of them on this album (hell, on any of their albums), but when ACQ attempts one, they always nail it. They’re not technical or over-the-top, but instead very ambitious and melodic. Makes you ponder why they just don’t record an hour-long album that’s just solo material. Whatever, if you want to hear them right away, the solos are on “The Orchid’s Sleep” and The Last Journey,” the solitary instrumental.

The drumming is as good as you’d expect it to be on a melodic death album, except the bass drums. They aren’t that audible under the mix, but from time to time you can hear them as if it were a drum check. Vocal wise, our main man takes the form of three villains – growly, throaty, and throatier. There are rare moments of the former and much more emphasis on the latter two, with the screams borderline black metal.

Overall, the tone is somber and desolate, which is my kind of stuff. Still though, if you’re a fan of early melodic death stuff, you shouldn’t pass this up without hearing it first. After that, it’s your call – but stay away from their debut under This Ending (it sucks monkey fuck).

A Canorous Quintet – Silence of the World Beyond

The are only two negatives I can say about this band, so I’ll just get those out of the way:
1) It’s a stupid name for a metal band. I had a co-worker stop by and peek at my iPod screen, and she asked “…classical?” Good thing they changed it.
2) Their sound, though good, is not terribly original. In fact, a lot of tracks sound like Amon Amarth, only sped up.

Now for the positives. The Amon Amarth comparison, which comes right out of the opening title track, I think is a good one. I like those guys. ACQ’s drummer Fredrik Andersson now plays for Amon Amarth in fact, and has since this lineup split in 1999. I don’t know how much songwriting influence he has, but the style is certainly very similar.

With the exception of ‘The Last Journey’, a weird, dolorous instrumental at track 6, the guitars deliver minimalist harmonies that mysteriously are not repetitious and always seem to work. There are no flashy solos, actually no solo work at all except a bit on the final track ‘Dream Reality’. The bass is mixed almost out of existence, which always bugs me because I like audible, moving bass.

Mårten Hansen on vocals changes it up a bit from track to track. ‘Dream Reality’ features the more throaty Gothenburg influenced vocals, whereas ‘Spellbound’ is the Blackest track. Though the vocals are higher pitched Death Metal in general, I would hesitate to label ACQ a “Gothenburg” band. The influence is clear enough, but their style varies.

Overall, ‘Silence of the World Beyond ‘ is in all respects a typical early release from a band that is still in the process of defining itself. It’s good music, so it goes in my Keeper list. I’ll also see if I can hunt down other releases, in particular after they changed to The Plague, then This Ending.