Search - Artrosis :: In Nomine Noctis

In the Name of Night

Mr D. | Cave Creek, Az United States | 07/30/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For anyone who is beguiled with femme-metal - that is metal music with a female lead singer, ala Evanescence - they would seemingly have struck gold in Poland. A true hotbed of Femme-metal, Poland has nurtured exceptional femme-metal bands from gothic to alternative and in between. Femme metal bands such as Delight, Moonlight, Desdemona, Closterkeller, Naamah among others, rule the roost in the home of the polka, but there's one I didn't mention. I saved the best and my favorite, Artrosis for last..



Artrosis features the sultry Medeah on the vocals belting out songs in a style sometimes like Garbage's, Shirley Manson and other times like Lacuna Coil's, Christina Scabbia. She also collaborates with, keyboardist Maciej Niedzielski on the songwriting. Rafel Grunt on guitar and Marcin Pendowski, bass fill out the lineup. The very strong Drum work is apparently the work of a studio musician or a machine. Many if not all of their songs have Orchestral backing. They have now completed five studio and a couple Live albums. They also have dual releases of the studio albums in both Polish and English. Their debut, Hidden Dimension is very, very good, but their sophomore effort, In Nomine Noctis is ,in my opinion, brilliant! Their junior release, In the Flowers Shade, while still very good, does not match up to the first two. The next two albums, Fetish and Melange, sees Artrosis take off in a new progressive, Avant Garde direction. While not bad, it's not the Artrosis I love. I fear we may never have the original back.



In Nomine Noctis

SONG/TRACK LIST

1. Hidden dimension

2. (

3. World without end

4. Hypnosis

5. Towards the top

6. Nothingness

7. Crazy

8. )

9. The request

10.To evil

11.Proaeba

12.Ukryty wymiar



In Nomine Noctis Actually starts and ends with my favorite song, a nine minute gem called "Hidden Dimension",

"Sorrow of enchanting thoughts, Fist of enchanted words - still does harm, Mirror of enchanted love - reflects the, remains of feelings of degraded hearts". the finale, "ukryty Wymiar", is the same song in Polish, as is the penultimate song "Prosba". "Hidden Dimension" is a medium paced song and, as most longer songs, has varying tempo and intensity. The keyboards, guitar and drums play a big part in this song and the introduction of bells is a nice touch. Medeah has either prerecorded background vocals or has background vocalists.



"(" is a two minute guitar instrumental with kind of a helicopter sounding background that leads directly into



"World Without End", A 5 minute very heavy drum and guitar piece with Shirley Manson type vocals in Polish by Medeah.



"Hypnosis", Is another 5 minute song, starting with a slower pace and gradually picking up speed. Medeah does some sensuous dialogue in the last half of the song.



"Towards the Top", I don't know whether to like this song or not. It starts out beautifully in a medium tempo with bells etc. I love the first three plus minutes and then it changes dramatically with Medeah sounding sort of like a nasty scorned woman.



"Nothingness", A medium slow pace with an atmospheric sound with a plunking piano and a whining piano.



"Crazy", A medium fast paced song with heavy bass, guitar and drums and Medeah singing multiple tracks in a mildly near eastern sound. excellent



")", Another instrumental lead in to



"The Request", Kind of a slow power ballad, somewhat ethereal but with heavy guitar parts and Medeah's emotive singing really carrying the song. exceptional



"To Evil", A song of varying tempo and intensity with prominent keyboards, guitar and of course Medeah.



"Prosba", A slow lilting ballad with Medeah being accompanied by an acoustic guitar in the softer sections and electric in the heavier sections. Wonderful song even in Polish.



"Ukryty Wymiar", Polish version of opening song. Another wonderful Polish song.



If cover art says anything, then this is a classy album. Yes it's one of my favorite album covers and it's also one of my favorite albums. So it's about time I get around to writing a review about it.



The lovely and talented Medeah is the vocalist and she collaborates with, keyboardist Maciej Niedzielski on the songwriting. Rafel Grunt on guitar and Marcin Pendowski, bass fill out the lineup. The very strong Drum work is apparently the work of a studio musician or a machine. They have now completed five studio and a couple Live albums. They also have dual releases of the studio albums in both Polish and English. The debut, Hidden Dimension is very, very good. The sophomore effort, In Nomine Noctis is ,in my opinion, brilliant! Their junior release, In the Flowers Shade, while still very good, does not match up to the first two. The next two albums, Fetish and Melange, sees Artrosis take off in a new progressive, Avant Garde direction. While not bad, it's not the Artrosis I grew to love. I fear we may never have the original back.



In closing, please don't do what I did and underestimate the quality of the music that is emanating from Poland. Maybe I heard too many Polish jokes when I was young or maybe I was expecting accordians but for whatever reason I delayed buying anything from Poland for a year or more. And of all the great goth-metal coming from Poland, Artrosis is a good place to start.



"