The 3rd And The Mortal
Tears Laid In Earth

When I first became passionate about doom, I never would have thought that within it there were such valid, innovative, and profoundly different groups, all masters at creating unforgettable melodies and atmospheres due to their beauty. I never would have thought, as I said, to find so many groups, and certainly not even in the most hidden corner of my mind, not even with all my imagination would I have expected to find a group like this.
The 3rd And The Mortal. Just from the name, you can't help but think it's a great group, one of those eclectic, innovative, and genius ones that don't care about commercial success but always seek new paths to express the feelings and emotions that envelop us. When you then find out that they're Norwegian, your convictions are strengthened. In Norway, you either play black/viking metal or are a music genius, which of course doesn't exclude the fact that it takes great ingenuity even to compose a single measly black riff.

So we insert the CD into our stereo and… surprise. A delicate female voice, with a clear operatic setting, English mangled by Norwegian pronunciation and cadence, and nothing else.
Before frantically searching for the receipt to return the junk you assume you've bought, skip to the next track… in fact, after the instrumental, or rather vocal, Vandring, we have what is perhaps the best song of the album, Why So Lonely. Soft guitars and a rhythmic session that greatly resembles that of Anathema, with some live jazz influences, open the true masterpiece of the Norwegian combo.

First of all, I would like to clarify that this is not metal; you will find almost nothing related to metal but only a lot of experimentation, an incredible dose of atmospheric parts very much à la Pink Floyd, and the wonderful voice of Kari Rueslatten, definitely what gives this CD that something extra that places it a step above many other releases in the same field.
The tracks range from semi-instrumental interludes like the already mentioned Vandring or Lengsel where Kari is accompanied by a beautiful bass track in terms of feel and sound richness, to the real pieces whose structure mainly consists of parts at the (outer) limit of doom to parts where everything seems to stop almost in contemplation of Kari's voice, which almost always appears on very soft parts, clean guitars, and very slow rhythms.

Let's overlook the sporadic double bass drum bursts of Death-Hymns and let ourselves be captivated by the magic of this CD halfway between Norwegian folk, doom, and the psychedelic rock of Pink Floyd, certainly a recommended purchase for everyone at least to try something new (I want to see this review on the list of recommended ones, even if you haven't listened to it… I don't care, it's worth making others wait for your downloads if you don't feel like buying it, so listen to it) I REPEAT: "IT IS NOT METAL."