Ephel Duath
Pain Remixes The Known

If in 1999 Arcturus offered us, with rather poor results, the compilation "Disguised Master," in 2007 Ephel Duath presents us with "Pain Remixes The Known," a full-length album of nine tracks featuring remixes of more or less famous pieces, taken from the band's recent discography.

Starting from an already atypical musical base, the question "Was it really necessary?" arises immediately, even without listening to the album. The answer is no, because let's be clear from the start, the result is not great: this "Pain Remixes The Known," although a peculiar album and not easily accessible, endowed with unusual and uncommon atmospheres, doesn't really make a mark, sometimes because the track is too dispersive, sometimes because the urge for experimentation makes the fundamental endpoint of a musical work lose its focus: the music. Moreover, the songs have relatively long durations, making them even heavier.

What we will face is therefore a real mishmash of sounds thrown in randomly, suffocated by an extremely invasive and often misplaced electronic element, as can be noticed in the terrible opening track "Hole I," introduced by useless electronic sounds that break the vocals and strip away all melody from the track, and this continues throughout, except for "Hole II" and "Hole III" where the remix is less invasive than the rest of the CD. Faced with such a disastrous situation, it is unfortunate to have to dismiss the attempt of these talented and brilliant musicians, but closing our eyes out of respect and admiration for them would be incorrect and inconsistent, especially if compared to the high quality of their previous works.

From a purely technical standpoint, there is nothing to criticize; the very few parts where the original parts of the songs played by the various band members are found, prove excellent and the production is excellent as well, despite the sounds being very cold and detached (perhaps intentional), but I repeat, to me, this album holds very low artistic as well as historical value for the group. 

Tracklist:

1) Hole I
2) Hole II
3) Hole III
4) Hole IV
5) Hole V
6) Hole VI
7) Hole VII
8) Hole VIII
9) Hole IX