Saturnus - Saturn In Ascension (2012)

The album "Veronica Decides To Die" is one of the factors that helped me to make every winter the best time of the year, the melancholic melodies were swimming through the sound of the rainy weather for more than 5 years to create memorable memories. Another winter is coming in my place and the grand Danish group Saturnus is insisting to make this winter very special for me by releasing their 4th full-length album "Saturn In Ascension".

After about 20 years of creating wonderful doom death metal music, Saturnus is proving with this release that they are the best doom death metal act in the world today. The continuous successful releases "Paradise Belongs to You" and "Martyre" and the perfect "Veronika Decides to Die" were not the only winning cards for this band, because the sound of "Saturn in Ascension" is really rival and vital compared to the previous releases. This was a really good year for the doom metal fans around the world, because the amount of high quality albums was really huge, so I am really glad to catch this release and to call it "my favorite doom metal album of 2012".

The heavenly choirs of the track "Litany Of Rain" added a lot of eerie and atmospheric feelings to the total sound that I really like, the deep growling vocals of Thomas continued to impress me with every verse, especially in the tracks "Wind Torn" and "Forest Of Insomnia". The production of this record was somehow similar to the previous album, though the tune of the lead guitars in Veronica Decides To Die was somehow more obvious and more dynamic, and the sound of the drums in this record is really powerful and full of energy.

I was thinking that the two new guitarists wont be able to continue the same melancholic texture of the previous albums, but some tracks like "Between" and Mourning Sun" were a big slap on the face of these thoughts. The using of acoustic guitars in the tracks was really a bright touch on the dimness of the tracks, especially in the track "A Lonely Passage" that contain a heavenly female vocal part part that has been performed by the singer Laurie Ann Haus. Though there are unlimited beautiful things in this album, but I cant hide my hate toward the artwork, it looks so cheesy and undervalued to me and I consider it as the worst artwork that has ever been done by Saturnus.

The faster tempo of the track "A Fathers Providence" reminded me of the track "Pretend" from the previous album, the same attacking vocal technique and the same fast stepping drums. I have to admit that I really liked the keyboards and the piano that have been added to the tracks of these records, they added more depth and more colors to the whole memorable portrait. The fans of the early Katatonia and the early Anathema will love this record because there are a lot of old school doom death metal influences in the riffs and the drums.

At the end, I can consider this album as a gift from the gods of metal to make this winter special and memorable for all the fans of doom death metal around the globe, if you are searching for some doomed and melancholic atmosphere to make the cold season warmer for your ears, then you have to get your copy of this album right now. This is not a "Veronica Decides To Die Part II", its something different and fresh, so don't waste your time and start seeking for your favorite moments in this record immediately.

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