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Mithras > On Strange Loops > Reviews
Mithras - On Strange Loops

Makes me wish more death metal was like this - 95%

Writhingchaos, December 24th, 2021

Out of all the death metal bands I’ve heard, Mithras struck me as probably the most unique in the way they use atmosphere. Of course, Morbid Angel and the like did attempt something similar on 1-2 albums as well, but I really can’t say that they came close to succeeding as well as these crazy Brits here. I mean goddamn, does this album ooze atmosphere or what?! The opening song itself “Why Do We Live” with its crazy tapping and tremolo picking is guaranteed to send you on one hell of a journey you won’t forget, slowly but steadily morphing into a more eerie progressive beast ending with the same beginning tapping part. One heck of a start to probably the most unique death metal album of the 2010s. “Time Never Lasts” has one hell of an infectious groove at the beginning that you just cannot get out of your head after repeated listens along with riffs shooting left, right and centre with no space to breath. At 2:30, a super-awesome riff progression with a dollop of melody followed by a searing solo really elevates the song to a whole other level.

If anyone were to ask me about the few bands who are capable of carrying the torch of death metal well into the 21st century for several decades, I would certainly point to these guys in a heartbeat. Unlike many prog death metal and melodeath bands who fuse both the melodic and brutal sections with songs, these guys employ a unique combination of fusing both parts as well as having both the melodic and brutal parts side by side within a song, making for a very interesting contrast indeed. Plus the sheer amount of delay used in the best possible way during all the lead sections of each song really sets them apart from most death metal bands out there. “When The Stars Align” has one of the catchiest opening riffs with an amazing outro and “The Statue On The Island” is a feast for everything melodic about Death Metal with a very ethereal feel to top it off. “Part the Ways” levels the ground with a fusillade of both melodic and brutal riffs only to bring you to a stomping mosh riff giving way to an epic melody intertwined within the structure of the song. While most bands would fall flat on their faces even trying to attempt such a feat, these guys pull it off superbly and how. Heck, they are considered veterans in the scene for a good reason.

Talking about the title of the album, I have to say that it is pretty damn appropriate given how many loops and turns some of the songs take to come back to repeating motifs. One of the main facets of this outfit is the infusion of very cosmic-sounding soaring leads into the searing brutality and extreme nature of the music, leading to a very enriching and wholesome musical experience that you simply do not find in the realms of death metal, at least not anymore. “Odyssey’s End” is the best example of the perfect fusion of both sonic extremes, starting with a slow intro leading to a cosmic death metal explosion of inter-galactic proportions. The riffs and melodies on this song simply need to be heard to be believed that these death metal titans are capable of such sonic wizardry. Hands down one of the best songs on the album, apart from being one of the unique death metal epics out there. The super-awesome title track also starts with a clean-picking sombre intro only to completely catch you off guard with riffs shooting out from everywhere. A flurry of melodic parts and leads dance around an eerie lead lick contrasting with the same intro clean picking as the album closes with one of the most introspective and flavourful songs Mithras has written. Yes, you heard that right. Many point to the brutal riffs coming from the influence of Altars of Madness-era Morbid Angel and given the unpredictable and schizophrenic nature of the music, one could hardly disagree.

Bottom line is - If you consider yourself a death metal fan and don’t own this album, what the hell are you even waiting for? Go for it immediately and additionally, this album would also serve as a good indicator to someone who is a not a fan of death metal by pointing towards new directions and realms that the genre can traverse to without sounding generic and boringly brutal like most bands nowadays. Truly amazing stuff.

Voivod Angel? - 100%

Hames_Jetfield, November 26th, 2020

I did not expect that from "On Strange Loops"! It was supposed to be at least as awesome as "Behind The Shadows Lie Madness", but even better? Yeah, although "Behind The Shadows..." has always deserved the top, on "On Strange Loops" the band surpassed themselves, not only that they offered an album as great as "Behind The Shadows...", it's still clearly different and in a completely peculiar style. Anyway, it turned out to be an excellent and brilliant album!

The aforementioned "otherness" "On Strange..." is nothing more than an even greater emphasis on progression and any escapes from hackneyed motives, i.e. something like crossing Morbid Angel with Voivod, Alchemist (the Australian one, of course!) or - to a much lesser extent - with Cynic. In addition, there is a much stronger atmosphere of the whole and actually...that's enough to get seriously lost in it all. The music on "On Strange Loops" is so non-linear and extreme (some of the songs like "Inside The Godmind" or "Howling Of The Distant Spaces" rub against the wall of sound) that it is very easy to lose meaning in it or miss many interesting motifs.

This disc absorbs like a black hole (straight from the cover) where absolutely anything can happen. And under the term "everything" there is brutality ("Part The Ways", "Time Never Lasts", "Between Scylla And Charybdis" or "When The Stars Align" - real killers!), melody (previously indicated, but also "The Statue On The Island", which is the leader here in this respect) or progressive breakaways (brilliant "Odyssey's End" with a Cynic influences at the end of the song and a title song, where there is even a place for a synthwave inset). There are also space ambient songs, which, however, mostly attract attention in the "right" songs, although it would be a sin to skip such cool intros as "Why Do We Live?" or "The Last Redoubt". Anything more to add? Probably not, "On Strange Loops" is for me a complete and perfect work for extreme playing. Cosmos in the highest possible form. So simply something that you listen to with great pleasure.

Originally on: https://subiektywnymetal.blogspot.com/2020/07/mithras-on-strange-loops-2016.html

One Strange Masterpiece - 99%

Diesel_Weasel, November 30th, 2017
Written based on this version: 2016, 2 12" vinyls, Willowtip Records (Limited edition, Coloured)

Mithras have been described as experimental death metal, and I’ve described them before as experimental extreme metal but they have become so much more with this new fourth album. They move forward with a slightly more progressive yet still accessible nature, especially if you’re willing to invest time into digesting this album properly; which like all great albums, takes a little time to reveal all it’s secrets and layers.

I would loosely describe ‘On Strange Loops’ as a concept album, but not in the strict sense. It follows core themes of time, the nature of the universe and asks the question we all ask ourselves; why do we exist? It also explores themes of possible human evolution and higher states of consciousness.

Mithras have now perfected the songwriting style they began (in my opinion) on the last album ‘Behind the Shadows Lie Madness’; specifically on the tracks ‘The Beacon Beckons’ and ‘Thrown Upon The Waves’ from that particular album. They take a beautiful clean melody or riff and eventually morph and twist it into something crushingly heavy. This idea or motif is built upon in each track very subtley and layered until it finds it’s way into your consciousness, then is bludgeoned by the juxtaposed blast beats and wall of cyclopean guitar riffs/rhythm. Then, just in-case this intoxicating cocktail isn’t enough, the fantastic other-worldly lead playing is added for good measure and it’s impossible not to be moved. This is an extreme metal album that moves you emotionally and deeply if you allow it to. This is something I can rarely say about any ‘extreme metal’ release unfortunately; but isn’t that what music is supposed to do - move you in some way?

Mithras constantly pull your heart strings and encourage your contemplative self with thought-provoking themes but then just as you’re lulled into the melody they accelerate in a millisecond into a maelstrom of savage chaos. It’s a trick that never fails to send shivers down this old metal-listener’s spine, and one that other bands should really take note of. The way to achieve crushing and devastatingly heavy music is to contrast it against beauty and melody. After-all, a star is only so beautiful because the blackness of space surrounds it. This is the art of Mithras - using ethereal liquid guitar notes, threading their way through the timelessness of space and it’s hidden wormholes, before dropping you into the space that exists beyond space and showing you the universal beauty or horror.

Although I consider this album to be absolute state-of-the-art extreme metal it is also a throwback to times when albums were properly conceived wholes and not just a collection of digital songs grouped together on your iPod. The album has a clear introduction to it’s themes with the first track ‘Why Do We Live?’ which gradually builds-up with the god-like vocals of Rayner Coss much like an ‘extreme metal poem’, before immediately moving into the sublime ‘When the Stars Align’, which has a fantastic opening riff and a really beautiful second half that cascades and descends with Rayner Coss defiantly shouting “I’ll know why we exist. When the stars align!". The whole album has been carefully designed and paced, with some tracks flowing into each other seamlessly - the trio of ‘Howling of the Distant Spaces', 'Between Scylla and Charybdis’ and ‘Time Never Lasts’ probably the stand-out example. Indeed, the album itself could actually be described as a ‘strange loop’ in the way it begins and ends with the speeding-up and slowing-down of an analogue clock movement, which I think is a very clever touch and shows attention to detail with respect to the album concept.

There are no filler tracks or weak compositions to mar 'On Strange Loops'. You can really tell that Mithras spent an age perfecting this release, and yet still manage to convey a compelling narrative. The story-telling on 'The Statue on the Island' is a perfect example, where an alien shares her knowledge, only to be trapped by her own ’students’ and abandoned before eventually luring someone else to the same fate and freeing herself. The Mithras trademark heavily-exaggerated pinch harmonics are present in force and the band continue to show intelligent and enhancing use of guitar effects - check out the second half of ‘Part the Ways’ where it opens into a fantastic expansive change in tone. 'Odyssey’s End' is a huge sprawling epic with a haunting and clean repeating guitar intro that carefully changes in tone before becoming a wonderful plasma-like distortion. This gives way to a mid-paced but gargantuan rhythm that almost seems to trip up over itself with ‘heaviness’. The track is so labyrinthine as to be difficult to describe in detail but showcases a variety of vocal styles by Rayner much in the same vein as ‘Beyond the Eyes of Man' from ‘Worlds Beyond the Veil’.

Leon Macey’s drums continue to impress on this album and in particular on the track 'Howling of the Distant Spaces’ with it’s waves of double bass drums that stop and start with pinpoint accuracy. It reminds one of Pete Sandoval’s drumming but at a higher tempo. Detailing some kind of space crew that discover something they wish they hadn’t, the track really excels all the way through but builds up into a real frenzy towards the end with everything accelerating to warp and the desperate cries of Rayner “turn back! surely we did not see!”. The vocals are inspired and portray genuine desperation, not just mindless growling. The track leaves you wanting more before ‘Between Scylla and Charybdis’ begins in the background, which is the fastest track on the album, reaching a dizzying 280bpm with it’s unusual stop/start main rhythm and extended solos before dropping you straight into ‘Time Never Lasts'. 'Time Never lasts' sounds much better here than on the previous EP version released in 2011. Like the album, it has a much larger sound with everything dialled to perfection.

As stated previously the album does become more progressive than it’s predecessors but this feature actually works and helps pace the album giving you a ‘breather’ with the instrumental track ‘The Last Redoubt’ calming everything with the melodic and clean guitar before the albums last act. This progressiveness continues with very unsettling drum patterns on the percussive and psychedelic ‘The Outer Dark’ which serves as a prelude to the album’s title track. I like to think of this track as a kind of journey or the end of a space odyssey just before the final destination. It’s very clever in the way it works the drum patterns and builds them up with time changes. This almost reaches a crescendo before... nothing. A glorious nothing for a split second. At this point it’s as if Mithras wanted to drop you into the centre of the Bootes Void to contemplate the vastness of space and time just before the album’s crowning glory begins…

The title track is immense. There’s no other fitting way to describe it and may possibly be the best track Mithras have written in a lot of ways as the composition is stunning. Take note of the first few clean guitar riffs that seem to echo at the beginning, as Leon Macey practises his guitar alchemy with this later in the track where it worms it’s way in moving from channel to channel and morphing into the main distorted rhythm part; a really fantastic detail of the track. After these first few clean parts, a gloriously heavy and memorable main guitar riff begins (that I can’t seem to get out of my head!) before Rayner proclaims we were ‘abandoned by the creator of worlds’ and the track moves into a strange ethereal movement with ascending and descending guitar parts in the background. It’s this point where Macey reintroduces the morphed version of the intro part as mentioned before which moves in and out and becomes a huge rhythm section building up before he attacks the astounding lead-work. Lead-work which rivals or even betters the work he recorded for ‘Psyrens' from ‘Worlds Beyond the Veil'. The track is eventually brought full circle (loop?) and enters a wonderful shimmering end section where the final question is asked, ‘why did we live?' and the loop begins again.

If Mithras launched us into orbit with 'Worlds Beyond the Veil' and described an alien parallel earth in 'Behind the Shadows Lie Madness', then 'On Strange Loops' takes us beyond the far reaches of space and time and is a ‘landmark’ album to my ears. In a world full of tech-death clones I believe Mithras stand alone and no other band sounds like them; certainly not with this high quality of song-writing and compositional ability. It’s this attention to song-writing that sets this album apart from the current crop of extreme metal and ensures you’ll be repeat-spinning it for a long time. No album is perfect but this gets achingly close, and is therefore highly recommended.

Repetitive and Hypnotic. Sometimes Just Repetitive - 70%

CvltLegion, October 24th, 2016

Ever wonder what would happen if Morbid Angel took a trip into space and passed through an oddball phenomenon that creates superheroes?

Indeed, this is spacey death metal with contemplative lyrics and lots of gruff yells, and guitar solos echoing and bouncing out of black holes. The main theme of the album is to find simple, hooking, short riffs and play play them repetitively until they become hypnotic. The Morbid Angel influence is heavy, from the guitar solos that sound like they're being played in water, short riffs, or tremolo picked riffs, blasting beating away in a similar vein. The rest of the action floats away from Morbid Angel with more upbeat riffs that seem to take some influence from 70's rock and 80's glam rock beaten and mutated until barely recognizable, all in a start and stop approach to tempos that mimics the starship Enterprise moving in and out of warp.

As catchy as the simple riffs are, the continual repetition that's meant to be hypnotic becomes a predictable formula. It's easy to guess how many times a concept will repeat, especially since every musical idea - be it a riff or guitar melody - is so short. "On Strange Loops" also doesn't feel consistent when jumping from different tempos all the time, unlike the early songs that slowly build up or slow down.

This review was originally posted at Cvlt Legion - https://www.facebook.com/1743373579244585/photos/a.1744821585766451.1073741828.1743373579244585/1749238341991442/?type=3