Cheap Quintessence (Music) (Borknagar) Price

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Customer Reviews of Quintessence

A Heavier, More Aggressive Borknagar
Where "The Archaic Course" showcased Borknagar's fascination with nature and took more of a majestic Viking metal route, the sound on 2000's "Quintessence" is more focused on songwriting, and is, simply put, more aggressive and well... heavier! <
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>Speeding down a path of musical and intellectual evolution, Borknagar changed themselved from the inside out here. The lyrics focus on science and universal mysteries rather than nature-themed lyrics on previous outings. Definitely provokes the listener to think, despite their obscurity, which may caise a few eyebrows to raise. But the lyrics are descriptive and beautiful nonetheless. These are by far some of the best lyrics I have seen in metal, alongside Agalloch, Dissection, and Emperor, among others. <
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>The guitars and drums have sped up consistently and now collaborate together impeccably. There are a lot of intricate fills on the drums, and much more in-your-fave double bass. All around, it's a fresh awakening from the "wall of noise" production used on previous albums. However, the guitars are a little too distorted and muddy for their own good, and sometimes clashes with the keyboards, which are more up-front than "The Archaic Course". They weave pompous and majestic melodies throughout the album, giving this album quite an ethereal atmosphere. <
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>Vortex now does bass and vocals. He still has one of the best clean voices in metal, but he does more screaming, which is much more visceral and venomous than before. His all-around vocal job is more steady, and he busts out some beautiful vocal harmonies on "Colossus" and "Revolt". <
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>1. Rivalry of Phantoms- Storms into a frenzy of triumphant guitar melodies, with some great organs underlying the storming and intricate drumwork. A strong opening track, and shows what to expect on the album. 5/5 <
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>2. The Presence is Ominus- Vortex double-layers his vocals here of clean and his hateful rasps. The guitars weave some great melodies, and the drums are outstanding! The lyrics are really good too. 5/5 <
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>3. Ruins of the Future- My favorite song. This song is faster with some catchy guitar work and stampeding drumwork. It later breaks down and Vortex gives one of his best performances here. 5/5 <
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>4. Colossus- Stunning! A pounding rhythm coupled with Vortex's opeatic clean vocal create a larger than life atmosphere, and you just feel like raising your fist to the sky when hearing this. The best song on the album. 5/5 <
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>5. Inner Landscape- A nice little interlude that showcases the somewhat hidden keyboards. A nice break from the chaos, but a bit unfitting. 3/5 <
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>6. Invincible- The pace picks back up with storming double bass. The verses shows a nice technical side of the band, and the keyboards add a triumphant feel here. The guitars are great as well. This song isn't too memorable, but the lyrics compensate for it. 4/5 <
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>7. Icon Dreams- More double-layered vocals here, which are interesting but catchy, and the tempo sets an epic mood. Again, not very memorable, but it has its moments. 4/5 <
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>8. Genesis Torn- Another great song. Has a booming chorus which will stick in your head for days, and the keyboard work woven with the guitars is impeccable. This sums up the album best, and has a lot of tempo changes. A great song. 5/5 <
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>9. Embers- Serves as somewhat of an intro to the grand finale of "Revolt". Truly beautiful guitar work.... 4/5 <
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>10. Revolt- Awesome... Vortex gives his most emotional vocal performance here, and the mood is almost mournful. A great closing song. 5/5 <
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>My only complaint here is the crowded production. I would reccommend this to fans of avant-garde or proggressive metal. Another great CD from Borknagar.

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I ENJOYED THIS ALBUM QUITE A BIT
At least Simen Hestnaes (ICS Vortex), I did. He's got a great voice. If only the synths, guitars and his vocals were more prominent. If I wanted to hear those crazy demonic vocals and supbar production, I'd listen to a superior and much more aggressive black metal band like Emperor.

More Vortex, less demon vocals.

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Great CD, terrible mixing job
In general, this is probably one of the best black metal (or whatever subgenre this stuff fits into) bands I've heard. I especially like the occasional clean vocals and keyboard parts. However, the real downside of the CD is its unbelievably bad mixing job. The guitar parts sound MUDDY, and at times sound just like complete noise (some of you less musical types may like this, but I think it would sound a lot better if one could actually make out the melodies, which in general are very well written and interesting). The same thing goes with the vocals, they're really muddy and at times impossible to make out, even though Vortex has a great voice. Buy this CD only if you really like darker metal stuff, or if you want something melodic and can put up with the bad production.