Coronatus
Recreatio Carminis

Coronatus are back with their fifth album, the first one I heard, their second was called Porta Obscura, sort of blew me away with amazing and original music. A blend of lyrics in german and english and a soprano duetting with a female rock vocalist. After that album I think the band has become ever more stagnant with solid album that has offered none of the novelty I heard the first time I heard them. They are sort of an archetype of why you have to always reinvent yourself and find some new avenues to go down for each and every album. Coronatus has not done this for the past two albums I have reviewed but now as before they have some new blood. I say new but I really mean old as Carmen L. Lorch who sang for the band on the album I previously mentioned and this while the band has kept both women who sang on the album before this one. There has also been kept in tradition with some changes in the line up as well.

So what does three female vocalists offer? and does the band man up and break some new ground again? These are the questions I had and the answer is that three female vocalist does nothing for the sound that two didn’t do. The vocal work is more or less the same even though the press info states that all the women feature on almost all the songs. Besides the bonus tracks that are songs from earlier works that Carmen sings for a different take on these songs, and they are available on the limited edition digipak. The sound is the same gothic metal with and atmospheric symphonic style, some soprano vocals and rock vocals from the female singers. I don’t think they do offer anything that they haven’t done stylistically and this might as well have been a compilation. The production is excellent, the people behind it are the same as before so nothing new here either.

I think that in many way this album highlights to me the need to renew oneself in musical style, it is actually both underwhelming and a bit dull. I wasn’t expecting that. Misunderstand me right though, the album is still good and if you haven’t heard the band before I believe you might find it fresh and exciting. But I have heard three albums by this band and this is more or less the same as those but without any real hit song, I think they sound a bit tired and the best track is the different version of Fernes Land, a song that was originally heard on the previous album. It is a bonus track so it does not even count as one of the tracks of the album.

In the end I would say that it is a good album, nothing special compared to what the band has done before or compared to the best female fronted bands. I think the band feels a bit tired and a bit like they do things looking back at what they did before rather than looking forwards thinking out new things. Bit of a disappointment to be honest, and I would say that if you don’t know this band from before I think you’d be better off with one of the earlier albums, bar perhaps the debut album Lux Noctis that I haven’t heard. Okay album, no more no less. It is time to move on now Coronatus, trying to replicate a previous winning concept does not make a winning result as this album clearly shows.

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