Stigmata
Track Listing:
1. Beast of Man
2. Stigmata
3. Sinister Mephisto
4. Dark of the Sun
5. Let the Killing Begin
6. Black Earth
7. Tears of the Dead
8. Vox Stellarum
9. Bridge of Destiny
Genre: Melodic Death Metal
Stigmata is Arch Enemy's second album and is a natural progression from Black Earth. I bought the vinly copy of this when I got Black Earth. Probably my least favorite of the Liiva albums but its excellent. That artwork though is atrocious.
Beast of Man - All around great song. Liiva has stepped it up and sounds so much better. Classic Amott guitar really complement the vocals, and an awesome solo. Great opener.
Stigmata - Instrumental pretty early here which feels like an odd choice. The song it self is decent, its so much more complex than the solos on Black Earth but I can't help but feel like it was a bad sequencing choice right after Beast of Man, kind of destroys the momentum the album was building
Sinister Mephisto - This song has like 30 riffs and every one is excellent. Like I mentioned earlier, Liiva really stepped up here. So much better vocals. Awesome solo. Just an all around great song.
Dark of the Sun - A just okay kind for song. The verses are rough and the chorus doesn't save it (like AE manages pretty frequently). Somehow they drug this one out for 7 minutes, which is definitely overlong, especially considering it's plodding pace
Let the Killing Begin - Another plodding song. The guitars are good but Liiva makes some interesting vocal choices here. The end of the second verse where he overemphasizes illusion always makes me cringe. I do like the distorted/clean stuff they do in the solo. Sounds super cool
Black Earth - The gem of the album. Their best song up to this point. The intro is cool, the verse riff is good and the chorus is awesome. I genuinely love Liiva screaming "Black earth! Save our souls!" No idea what he's talking about, but it sounds awesome. The solo is a slower more emotive solo than most of the rest of the album.
Tears of the Dead - The tremolo picking intro / chorus part is awesome. Liiva's screams over it work so great. Fun solo and good verses. Solid song
Vox Stellarum - Instrumental track number two. I like the piano, super haunting, then thr guitar kicks in and it immediately feels like a Dream Theater song (in a bad way). Thr guitar drops back out and were left with the piano again. Odd song
Bridge of Destiny - The last track on the album starts off with a furious guitar riff, slows it down a bit for the verse and then turns into a palm muted chug fest with Liiva trying his best. He kinda feels muddy here and it detracts from the song. This one is also pretty overlong. It just doesn't hold up for almost 8 minutes.
Overall 4 green songs, and pretty solid effort. Liiva sounds miles better than on Black Earth but the songs have a tendency to drag at points. This needed to trim some of the fat. They figured that out on Burning Bridges (The best Liiva album) but I dont own that so it's not getting reviewed yet, which is a shame. My main issues with Liiva is his lack of depth and on Burning Bridges he takes another step foward.
A small step down from Black Earth, but I like 3.5 is too harsh so another
4/5
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