ANCIENTONICA

A couple of good tracks and some ambient are not enough for me. Possibly I'm so much into Senmuth's music that I can hardly find new things. I'm not very often surprised.

This "Ancientonica" has good moments, but it's not dissimilat from dozen of other albums of this very prolific artist. This is clear since the opener, which starts quite well, setting up an ambient atmosphere, but losing itself into the usual changes of pitch that sometimes affect his compositions, so what was possibly a good track is jeopardized by the lack of melodic structure. When I say "melodic structure" I don't mean that it has to be melodic, I mean that it should have a structure.

The pompous "Сакральные Знания Небес" (Sacred Knowledge of the Heavens" is another example: a dark symphonic, sometimes Wagnerian piece which could have been better served without passages so disconnected.

The cello sound which permeates "Megalitharium" is, I think, the best thing of the album, but even Tool of Gods is not bad. Taken one by one, none of the tracks is bad, but the album is so empty of true highlights that in the complex it results heavy to digest.

A mention to "Existio Otra Humanidad" (in Spanish: Another Mankind Existed), that sounds very "Post" with a highly distorted guitar, but whose low-volume interludes can be sometimes disturbing as they cut the tension off. At least there's a good melody hidden behind the distortion.

Too few, I've said, to rate it as good. For Senmuth's addicted only.