By Monk
Heavy metal has always had a fascination with the darker aspects of human
history, and mysterious French troubadours Ecclesia are no exception, recalling and exploring the 12th Century Holy Inquisition in the most minute of details via an eight-year career that has spawned an EP and, now, two albums, this latest of which is a decent enough slice of conceptual doom-infused power metal.
Drawing musically on influences such as Candlemass and Tony Martin-era Black Sabbath, Ecclesia tell their stories with accomplished aplomb, extrapolating all the classic traditional and latter-day power metal miens and tropes along the way: massive melodies, huge harmonics, soaring vocals, layers of infused orchestration and enough fretboard wizardry to keep a medieval mage trying to decipher their spells for several centuries.
Possessed of a suitably dark undertone, as befits its lyrical thematic, coupled with an equally apt sense of melodrama and and megalomania, ‘Ecclesia Militans’ is everything you would expect of the genre. Not exceptional or provocative, by any means, but more than competent and an enjoyable, entertaining listen.
- ‘Ecclesia Militans‘ is out now.
facebook.com/ecclesia.official
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