Corpo-Mente
s/t

Behind the Corpo-Mente moniker hides a duo of French musicians, one is multi-instrumentalist Gautier Serre who is described as a “legendary underground baroque-core artist” – how interesting isn’t that? And then we have Rïcïnn or Laure Le Prunenec as she is also known as who does the vocals. This is the self-titled debut of the duo and from the looks of it one could conclude that it is an album to take interest in. But looking interesting and actually being interesting are of course two different things and just being different and innovative in words and genres doesn’t automatically mean that reviewers will praise an album unreservedly.

Musically I would say that it is fairly different, the style is something of their own I think. The music is not particularly powerful in the heavy department but draws more from electronica, a bit of baroque and that sort of things. The vocals are female, a bit operatic yet quite intimate – in fact I think that you can describe their entire style as quite intimate. Low tempo and quite held back on all regards, not something acting outwards but something that requires your attention in order to get into it. Maybe not for the most standardised heavy metal fans. Ten tracks on the album and they play for 41 minutes, but as the variation is fairly small it tends to feel a tad long despite the short playing time. Sure there are nuances but you need to have patience to really get it and in today’s world I am not so sure that everybody does.

They have a fairly dreamlike sound, kind of like moving through dreamy landscapes and such things. Good atmospheres, but the vocals are not particularly impressive as I think they lack in intensity and authority, they feel kind of weak. Overall though, it is a good album with much strength particularly in the ideas – it sounds different and quite fresh but unfortunately also a bit repetitive and slow. You need to play it quite many times to really get into it and it is not sure that you do even if you play the album a lot. I kind of like this album but at the same time I think it is an opportunity wasted, they don’t utilise the best out of their musical building blocks and in the end the creation does not really reach the heights of the best albums.

No standout track but a standout style, unfortunately their style becomes repetitive fast and in the end I cannot think that it is an album that is anything but quite average. Good but nothing that really stands out that much. They have potential but doesn’t quite live up to it, those of you who like the similar bands or things like I have just described might disagree with my assessment but that is how I see it – a good album that doesn’t quite take off towards our higher ratings.

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