Band:	Insaniae / Mourning Lenore
Album:	Daemonivm 3rd Anniversary Celebration
Style:	Doom metal
Release date:	2009

Insaniae

01. O Covil
02. Tradição Ancestral

Mourning Lenore

03. Rain's Seduction
04. Patterns Of Emptiness

A couple of months ago a split CD celebrating the 3rd anniversary of the Portuguese metal blog Daemonium, containing two Portuguese doom bands, reached a then sunny Netherlands. As I am always interested in unknown bands and especially doom bands and also in bands from countries which aren't too well-known for their metal scenes, I was quite excited.
Portugal is more renowned for its Port wines and Fado then for its metal scene. Okay they have the well-known Moonspell and, a recent discovery of mine, Process Of Guilt, and also Desire but without consulting Metal Archives anyone would be hard pressed to name ten Portuguese metal bands. With this split CD you get two melodic death doom bands playing two lengthy tracks each.

Insaniae starts off proceedings with two tracks sung in Portuguese and besides a male grunter also feature clean female vocals, and probably for that reason at times reminding me of the Italian Embrace My Ruin. Musically both "O Covil" and "Tradição Ancestral" are very proficient melodic death doom tracks in the vein of old Moonspell, My Dying Bride, Swallow The Sun, Officium Triste et. al. characterized by a good clear guitar sound with a bite to it and a solid build up but for me personally they are ruined at the moments the female vocals kick in. It's not that they are bad but they take away from the dark atmosphere which distinguishes the songs. It's almost as if the female vocals are employed because female vocals in metal are a major selling point nowadays. But I don't think that is really the case or else they would have been employed in greater abundance than they currently are.

Disregarding the female vocals Insaniae's two tracks, which will apparently also feature on their upcoming album, do hold a certain amount of promise for the future. So, I will surely check out their upcoming album, and so should anyone who remotely likes this sort of music.

The other two tracks, "Rain's Seduction" and "Patterns Of Emptiness" by Mourning Lenore were especially recorded for this split album. Now, this is the sort of death doom I like to listen to on a regular basis. "Rain's Seduction" opens with a riff which has a guitar sound very reminiscent of old Paradise Lost and actually seduces the listener to get fully immersed by the song. The way the song is built up reminds me at times of recent Deinonychus and in its more melodic moments of Officium Triste. A great plus are the vocals which go from grunting to screaming to whispering thus creating many atmospheric layers over the music. A truly good and promising song. But the truly great song of this split is found in closer "Patterns Of Emptiness". As "Rain's Seduction" this one is once again characterized by its shifts in atmosphere from angry to serene calm. The serene calm is typified by the beautiful jazzy bluesy part at the halfway point of this song, lulling the listener into a sense of security.

All in all Mourning Lenore is a very promising band, which, although at times reminiscent of fellow countrymen Process Of Guilt, old Paradise Lost, and Officium Triste have actually got a sound of their own. I am very curious how this band will evolve since these two tracks are the first they have ever released. Taking that into account I see a bright gloomy future for these gentlemen ahead of them. A band such as Mourning Lenore would be a perfect opener to doom festivals such as Dutch Doom Days or Madrid Is The Dark. An upcoming band I will surely be following closely.

In conclusion: Anyone interested in melodic death doom should check Daemonivm 3rd Anniversary Celebration out and see what a sunny country such as Portugal has to offer a scene which is usually associated with Yorkshire and northern Europe.

As per usual I won't be marking a release such as this. But if I were forced to do it I would rate Insaniae's contribution a 7.2 (mainly due to the inclusion of female vocals) and Mourning Lenore's contribution an 8.1
The production of this split CD is top-notch, so a 9 in that department is in order.

Insaniae can be contacted at insaniae@sapo.pt
and be heard at:
http://www.myspace.com/insaniae

Mourning Lenore can be contacted at mourning.lenore@gmail.com
and be heard at:
http://www.myspace.com/mourninglenoredoom