After I was desperate to tell the darkened Metal world about the beauty and the musical art of ANTICHRISIS’ album “Perfume”, I received an Email of their bandleader & mastermind Sid, if I would be interested in receiving their latest output “A Legacy Of Love – Mark II”. I accepted it immediately and a few days later I found the DigiPak in my mailbox. I want to thank Sid and the band, because that was a really nice gesture, which you don’t see that frequent in those days.

Now I’m in honor to review the abovementioned album. I knew that the band had undergone a lot of changes between the releases of “Perfume” and “A Legacy Of Love – Mark II”, as the line-up is the same line-up as it was in the year 1998, as they released “A Legacy Of Love”.

Unless I’m very much mistaken, “A Legacy Of Love – Mark II“ is a remake of their album “A Legacy Of Love”, which they released in 1998. Unfortunately the one from 1998 isn’t that familiar to me and that’s the reason why I can’t put my finger on anything, what has been changed or what has been remade.

Despite my missing background information I was pretty anxious to hear, which auditive experiences would befall me. Even the first track “How Can I Live On Top Of The Mountain” is a marvellous piece of instrumental music full of abundant Uilleann pipes and you get this certain feeling that you’re standing somewhere in Ireland on the top of a plateau and that you’re looking with a certain grandness at the land below you. Towards the end those awesome Uilleann pipes are supported by monumental drums, before it goes byrdy into the second track “Nightswan”. It’s sheer incredible, which positive and blithe spirit is laid onto this track. This spirit carries on seamlessly at “Our Last Show”, what a wonderful track with a wonderful guitar solo! That’s one of the typical tracks for me, to which I could listen to 25 times a row and I would like this certain track after the 25^th spin as much as I did it after the first spin.

The fourth track “Forever I Ride” starts off with Sid’s great expressive voice, which alternates with Lisa’s voice. This track is the hardest track on this album so far, as you can hear some sounds of a “wall of guitars”, but this certain blithe spirit still carries on, while they’re calming down at the following track “Dancing In The Midnight Sun”. As this slow piano sets in, I can see the vision in the back room of my head, where the band performs this song live as dusk sets in and thousands of cigarette lighters are raised illuminated into the sky. Afterwards I faced the huge surprise at this album. As a few measures of “Baleias Bailando” went by, I assumed these lyrics to be very familiar, as it is a remake of “Carry Me Down”, which I’m recognizing by their predecessing album “Perfume”. The only difference is, that they gave this track a brisk outfit, but “Carry Me Down” is supposed to be a remake of the original “Baleias Bailando”, which appeared at “A Legacy Of Love” (1998).

“Planet Kyrah” is supposed to be a good track, but I had to give this track a few spins, to get into the entire atmosphere of it and this track seems to be the “less best” (well, I guess it’s grammatically incorrect to say “less best”) track on this album, if I can use the term “less”. “End Of December” is also introduced by Sid and this track fits seemless into the album’s byrdy concept. “The Sea” starts off powerful, abundant, emotional, epic, expressive (I could name about 20 adjectives more, which are heading into the same direction) and significant, before Lisa appeases it. On this track they’re trying to create an image of the (roaring) see and they did it quite well! The song is getting a little bit more lugubrious towards the end, but it doesn’t dilute the song’s quality. This lugubriousness continues at “Trying Not To Breathe”, where a certain Frank has his guest performance as a vocalist and he fits perfectly and flawlessly into the entire emotional concept. The Bonustrack “The Farewell” rounds off the album with Sid’s lamentation and Lisa’s “vow of love” and it’s showcasing a lot of lovesickness or the pain of a love in general.

What else can I say about it? Each song has been produced pretty well, even a tiny bit better than they did it on “Perfume”, as the production is supposed to be a little bit brisker and more abundant. These 73:20 minutes are going by rapidly and afterwards I wanted to have another 73:20 minutes and another and another…

There aren’t many comparisons in my mind about such a unique album, maybe eventually LOREENA MCKENNITT, but that’s it with reasonably useful comparisons from my side. Just go to the next record dealer of your trust; just buy this incredible awesome album and create your own image! As I already mentioned it in my other review about ANTICHRISIS; you can not expect some clichéd Metal, but wonderful Folk/Ambient Rock, which offers unequalled opportunities. Please make it big with ANTICHRISIS; these exceedingly talented musicians deserve it!!!

(And no, the good rating doesn’t concern with the fact that I got this album as a present; I would invest comparatively much money to get such a piece of great musical art, as you get wonderful and unique music for your money!)

Listening tips: everything from the first second to the last!

(Online November 24, 2006)