Band:	Mistweaver
Album:	Age Of Darkness
Style:	Extreme power metal
Release date:	May 2005

01. Age Of Darkness
02. Deadly Slander
03. The Sun Turned Into Blood
04. The Curse
05. Malefica Non Patieris Vivere
06. Malleus Maleficarum
07. Baneful Winds
08. De Profundis
09. Eternal Rest
10. Final Fight
11. Melancholy

Age Of Darkness is already the third album of this Spanish band hailing from Burgos, the first with Golden Lake Productions. The definition of their sound, "Progressive Medieval Death Doom" kept me highly interested even before I heard their music and so did the beautiful artwork on the cover and in the booklet. Unfortunately, as it often happens when you set your expectations too high, the result is quite disappointing. Mistweaver tries to play personal, original music but more or less fails to keep it interesting.

The problem doesn't really come from the music itself. There's only good to say here, it is varied enough, these guys are good musicians and are not afraid to use all sorts of sounds and arrangements to keep their musical standards high. This is not the kind of album you hear everyday, their approach reminds me of the Andorran band Persephone, in the sense that they use Gothenburg/melodeath riffing, heavy metal ("The Sun Turned Into Blood" is influenced by Iron Maiden), thrash and sometimes even black ("De Profundis" shows a really aggressive and hating side of Mistweaver) to create complex compositions. Just a precision though: I've not heard any doom, and the medieval side is not really present. Only at the end of "Eternal Rest" you have a very nice and catchy folk break that reminds of Tuatha De Danann. Anyway, the music is very good.

But when you play complex music full of arrangements and breaks, you better have a top notch production if you don't want your album to be a mess. Unfortunately, Age Of Darkness is crippled with a demo-like and absolutely powerless sound that makes most songs sound lifeless. Last but not least, although the growls are good enough, the clean vocals - both male and female - are just not good and sometimes almost out of tune. This is unacceptable for a product supposed to be professional.

In a nutshell, I really wanted to like this album, but unfortunately Age Of Darkness didn't live up to my expectations, despite having its moments - moments of sheer genius sometimes. I'm a bit disappointed but still if you're looking for new sounds or original bands, you might like Mistweaver. If they don't make the same mistakes on their future albums, they could be a pleasant surprise.

Highlights: The Sun Turned Into Blood, De Profundis (check it out on MS August compilation!), Eternal Rest