Somnus are a band from Ohio that plays a mixture of black, doom, death, atmospheric,symphonic, and gothic metal and this is a review of their classic 1999 album "Awakening The Crown" which was released by Root Off All Evil Records.
Drums alternate between slow, mid paced and fast drumming with some brutal blast beats, while the keyboards have a very dark sound that is very melodic, and symphonic sounding and has the epic feel of a medieval warrior film, while the bass playing is all rhythm and follows the riffs coming out off the guitars and at times the bass lines sound very powerful.
Rhythm guitars are very melodic with the slower riffs being influenced by doom metal while the faster riffs are mostly black metal riffing with some death metal influences while the lead guitars are melodic solos that mix mix classic metal, doom metal and melodic black metal together.
Vocals are mostly high pitched black metal screams mixed with some deep death metal growls as well as some spoken word parts and the female vocals remind of off a more well down black metal band of their mid 90's and early 2000's which I don't feel are necessary to announce here.
Lyrics on this album cover some fantasy style lyrics that are influenced by paganism, alchemy and some anti-christian themes from a Gnostic point of view while the production sounds very professional and you can hear all of the instruments that are present on the album.
In my opinion Somnus where a very talented band and had the potential to be as well known as their European counterparts but since they where from America at the time when the country was only getting recognized fro brutal death metal they got ignored. If you are a fan of symphonic black metal before it became the trend it is today you should get this album. STANDOUT TRACKS INCLUDE "The Alchemist" "Beyond The Shore" Fulfilling The Throne". RECOMMENDED BUY.
https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Somnus/481
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