Maze Of Feelings - Maze Of Feelings (CD)

Review
The Pit of the Damned
7/10
22.10.2018

In spite of its off-putting Emo name that seems to dilute the vengeance inflicted by a Morbid Angel track, Maze of Feelings does display a solid mid-paced doom/death metal style that kicks around its grooving riffs with a balance of accessible and underground elements. Though the maze itself is mainly a series of dead depressive ends, the band is able to distill its melancholy in myriad ways including tears of tremolos that are gracefully laid into a breaking section in “Where Orphaned Daughters Cry”, a nasty riff harpooning “Necrorealistic” into one's brain and dragging him through a beatdown reminiscent of early Paradise Lost rhythms, and a cold remorseless run in “Adherents of Refined Severity” that chases you through this disorienting labyrinth in the hope of finally striking you down with its razor sharp axe.

With two distinct vocalists cleanly singing, screaming, whispering, speaking, and growling throughout the album, the instrumental range compliments the spread with nods to Paradise Lost and Lacuna Coil, thundering bass across the spectrum of sound in some instances and methodically dragging melodies from dungeons into the sun at other times. In doom metal fashion, an anvil cymbal steadily strikes behind bellows of double bass tightening the treble's fetters and keeping it from escaping the weight below. A very Tool sounding riff to the closing track, “Dreamcatcher”, opens a song that accentuates the more gothic lilt to the doom sound that Maze of Feelings captures. While the band may bridge on some melodic death metal aesthetic in its vocals and some of its denser guitar moments, the majority of this album sticks closely to its doom template, experimenting with some gothic theater, and reigning in its pace from the first chugging riffing in “Drained Souls Asylum” to find its footing deeper in depression than screaming for vengeance.

As long drawn out melodies fight with a freight train of growling in “Cold Sun of Borrowed Tomorrow”, grappling with the high vocals and pulled to punishment by a laborious pacing, the downtrodden trope of a riff that opens “Grey Waters of Indifference” conjures memories of when this sort of sound was new and cool rather than common and overdone in many imitations. Still, Maze of Feelings is able to take the standard style and find success, but without the energy and power of some of the bands with which it shares its space.

'Maze of Feelings' is not without its faults and nadirs. While the crying sample at the end of “When Orphaned Daughters Cry” could have simply been left out of that quality piece, the band seems to have stuck more to the doom designation and accentuated it with different aesthetics rather than explored the conventions that could achieve the full potential of the band's ideas. Songs like “Necrorealistic”, “Dreamcatcher”, and “Drained Souls Asylum” start off with distinction just to end up running into the same dead ends, something expected when caught in a maze as sunlight fades, yet the gothic and more aggressive movements show that there's more to this band than simply playing the doom metal trope of taking a good start and constantly cornering it. The mid-paced structuring that uses its sure footing to find places to gallop and smoothly exaggerate is a strong starting template and Maze of Feelings would do well to take that template farther as the band goes along in order to better appreciate the instrumental talent lending itself to the theater at the forefront.

Maze of Feelings is a band that seems to revel in its familiarity and is set to inch its way towards making its own mark. Moments throughout this album show small points of individual personality, the instrumentation naturally rides its reveries as well as accentuates the theater in the vocals, but the band still has yet to truly come into its own. Here's hoping that these talented musicians can find an energy that compliments the ability gathered in this quintet.

Author: Five_Nails

Review
Necromance
9/10
24.03.2018

Hoy en Necromance os traemos el último trabajo de MAZE OF FEELINGS titulado “Where Orphaned Daughters Cry” de la mano de BadMoonMan Music.

Esta banda polaca se caracteriza por hace metal melódico, death y sobre todo doom, algo que matizaremos con el paso de los temas. Está compuesta por Andrey Karpukhin a la voz, Ivan Guskov también a las voces, pero melódicas, Jakub Wieczerzycki a la batería, Szymon Grodzki al bajo, Krzysztof a la guitarra y Marcin Warznski a la guitarra solista.

Este trabajo comienza con “Drained Souls Asylum” que nos sorprende muy gratamente. Aunque ellos se describen como muy extremos y sobre todo doom, lo que oímos no se asemeja con las descripciones. Y es que hacen un metal melódico de una calidad increíble, que posee tanto voces guturadas como voces melódicas, gracias a sus dos cantantes de un nivel muy alto.

Si hablamos de la calidad musical, que ya nos sorprendían en el anterior tema, según avanza el trabajo, más nos apasiona. Y es que las guitarras suenan como un cañón, además de estar muy bien definidas con todos esos riffs tan pesados. “Adherents of Refine” es un ejemplo claro de cómo batería, bajo y guitarras se unen en un mismo ser y trabajan juntas para sacar adelante un tema brutal. Comienza muy percusivo, pero el paso al estribillo es abrumador, debido a la potencia y desgarra que muestran.

“Where Orphaned Daughters Cry” es el tema que le pone nombre a este disco. Comienza de manera muy lenta, con guitarras limpias, con chorus y baterías de lo más relajadas, pero que van ganando intensidad con el paso de los minutos hasta pasar a hacer el metal tan característico que hacen estos chicos. De grandísima calidad la expresividad que poseen estos chicos de Polonia, llega a erizarnos el pelo.

Comenzamos a ver toques Doom en “Necrorealistic”, donde guitarras no tan distorsionadas, pero si con riffs pesados aparecen para dejarnos abrumados. Es de destacar que en este tema aparecen solos de guitarra de muy alto nivel melódico. De nuevo, nos presentamos ante un tema con muchos altibajos, pasando de limpios casi acústicos a las distorsiones más brutas, pero siempre con ese toque melódico tan bueno que tienen estos músicos.

“Grey Waters of Indifference” nos recuerda a BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE, y es que tiene ese toque en la voz que tanto se parece al cantante de la banda anteriormente mencionada. No obstante, seguimos impresionados con el nivel compositivo y musical de MAZE OF FEELINGS, no bajan el nivel de sus temas en todo el álbum.

Los licks de guitarra son de una grandísima calidad durante todo el disco, pero nos sorprenden en “Cold sun borrowed tomorrow”, que junto a un riff muy pesado y percusivo, nos muestran su mayor lado doom, recordándonos a veces a los GHOST más antiguos. Muy curioso la voz de la chica en este tema.

Por último, nos topamos con “Dreamcatcher” un tema algo particular dentro del álbum. Y es que comienza con sonidos muy ambientales, y una voz susurrando, como si sufriese, para terminar en unas guitarras distorsionadas, llenas de ganancia dando brutalidad como llevan todo el disco. Una gran manera de terminar el trabajo.

Este álbum nos ha sorprendido gratamente debido a la gran calidad compositiva y musical por parte de estos músicos polacos. Estamos seguros de que van a llegar lejísimos si siguen así, puesto que su nivel sobrepasa muchos límites.

Author: Alvaro Castilla Medina

Review
Iye Zine
7.5/10
17.03.2018

I polacchi Maze Of Feelings per proporre il loro ottimo death doom hanno pescato due vocalist dalla scena russa nelle persone di Andrey Karpukhin (Abstract Spirit, Comatose Vigil) e Ivan Guskov (Mare Infinitum).

In effetti l’interpretazione del genere in questo caso è piuttosto variegata, grazie anche all’uso della doppia voce, improntata per lo più sul profondo growl di Karpukhin e sulla stentorea tonalità clean di Guskov, che conferisce ulteriore dinamica ad un sound oscillante tra passaggi molto più robusti come l’ottima opener Drained Souls Asylum, ed altri maggiormente in linea con il death doom melodico come Where Orphaned Daughters Cry, o Cold Sun Of Borrowed Tomorrow e Grey Waters Of Indifference, nelle quali appare anche una voce femminile.
La band, guidata dai due chitarristi Marcin Warzyński e Krzysztof Wieczerzycki, dimostra comunque diverse pulsioni progressive il che apporta più di una variazione ai canonici temi del genere, senza che il lavoro ne risenta dal punto di vista dell’omogeneità; va detto che invece un minimo scostamento avviene in termini di qualità distribuita lungo l’album, visto che le prime tre tracce sono davvero molto belle ed appaiono sensibilmente superiori al resto della tracklist, che rimane attestata sempre su un buon livello medio ma senza colpire più di tanto, salvo la conclusiva Dreamcatcher, nella quale si ritorna ad atmosfere più aspre e nel contempo lentamente cadenzate.
Nel complesso questo primo passo targato Maze Of Feelings si può considerare decisamente riuscito, in virtù di una resa sonora invidiabile e di una serie di canzoni complessivamente valide, collocando la band polacco/russa in una fascia di gradimento in grado di attrarre sia chi apprezza il doom sia gli appassionati di death melodico.

Author: STEFANO CAVANNA