Coronatus
Cantus Lucidus

German band Coronatus are back, this time as a quartet with a new female vocalist and a new guitarist. It is a band of change amongst the members but of static appearance in the sound department, something that was disturbing last time around. This is the band’s sixth album since the debut that was released in 2007 so they are one of the most active bands in the metal genre today. Maybe this rapid succession of albums is detrimental to the creative department of the band’s remaining creator Mats Kurth and the other remaining member Carmen Lorch who once left the band only to later return after being out for an album or two

Female fronted gothic metal is the simple description of what you will hear when you play this album. They have two female vocalist, Carmen with a more soprano-like style and Anny with a more rock music style of singing, they do some nice duets during the playing time of the album. They do sing in both the German and the English language, which gives the songs a bit of contrasting styles to one another, they also use some chants and the likes so the album also has a classical feel to it thanks to chants and symphonic undertones. The variation over the album is quite large, certainly large enough to handle the playing time that is a bit over 40 minutes. The album has a good depth as well but is also easy to take in for the new listener; it is a very solid production just like their albums always have been.

And this time it is a lot better than the fairly bland Recreatio Carmini that was released around a year before this album. I think they hit the marks a lot better, the songs feel fresher and more exciting than they did last time around, I also think that being a bit rougher around the edges and more straightforward in style is very beneficial for their music and this album feels like a perfection and improvement of their craft rather than something really new. I think that they really need to freshen up their sound, as the risk is that they become more and more irrelevant for each release, just like it happens with all bands that just keep repeating themselves. This time they pull it off but for each album they release that conforms to the same kind of style it will get harder, until they cannot manage to be anything but bland copies of themselves. Maybe they should use the rotation of members to bring in fresh ideas in order to make the band more relevant in a longer perspective. But as I stated before, this time they manage to sound interesting and fresh while maintaining what they have always done, the singers are both strong and they do have very good songs all around. I think you would be hard pressed to find any major weakness of this album.

I really like this album, it is what Coronatus has always been about, they do their thing brilliantly and the disappointment of the latest album is almost forgotten even though this feeling looms; I fear that this might be the last truly good album by this band. I hope I am wrong in this fear and that they maybe do an album sung entirely in German and find some new and interesting angles of attack for their music. Generally the songs sung in German are the best of the album with the opening track being the absolute peak of the album. Strongly recommended for fans of the female fronted gothic genre.

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