Reviews by metachoz

An album for souls that went through darkness.
Epic, melancholic, romantic, poetic, melodic... Doom Metal, with classical influences (violin, piano). Melodramatic clean singing by Aaron (no grunting like on their previous records).
"The Cry of Mankind" is too prolix and "Your Shameful Heaven" is not that special but "Black Voyage", "A Sea To Suffer In", "Two Winters Only" and "From Darkest Skies" are excellent.
This remastered has 4 bonus tracks: "The Sexuality of Bereavement" can also be found on Trinity, one of the best on that compilation... slow, deep, dark, heavy with grunts.
And 3 interesting live tracks that add something to the album: "Your River", "A Sea to Suffer In" and "The Forever People".

Emotional landscapes indeed. Some say this album sounds cold, distant, alienated, ... but there's a lot of beauty and depth in it.
Her voice is mystical, haunting, powerful. The same can be said about the music, it has hypnotic strings and different technological effects.
"Unravel" is my favorite Björk song, slow heartbreaking track with a great organ solo.
"Hunter" sounds like a dangerous but exiting trip. Fired up a joint right after I heard the first tunes of it when I saw her live in Brussels. "Pluto" is a pretty heavy song with electrical techno beats, at the end she screams like she's going to explode.

Listened to the original (1988) album years ago, at that time I thought it was boring and had a lousy sound.
This remaster sounds much better (cleaner).
Still don't like "502" and "Anarchy in the U.K" and don't care much about "Into the lungs of hell" though.
The vocals are raspier, rawer, more aggressive than on most Megadeth albums.
Favorite songs: "In My Darkest Hour", "Hook in Mouth" (one of the most underrated Megadeth songs), "Mary Jane", "Liar" ... speed-trash-punk.

Mandylion is definitely a ground-breaking classic in the gothic, prog-metal scene.
An atmospheric, symphonic, melodic album with spacy keyboards, heavy guitars...
The powerful vocals by Anneke van Giersbergen are far from the typical operatic, screeching female vocals of most gothic bands.
This re-issue and extra album with 7 demo tracks have a crystal clear sound.
The demos from most bands have a lousy sound but these demos are excellent!!
"Solar Glider" is previously unreleased, an energetic instrumental track that hasn't been used on Mandylion because it was too 'happy' for the more dark feel of the record.

Sometimes heavy, sometimes trippy.
The singing by Anneke van Giersbergen is even better than on previous albums, where her voice was a bit too high now and then, now it's perfect.
Favorite tracks: "Rollercoaster", "Shot To Pieces", "Bad Movie Scene", "Analog Park".