IPSUM „Mystic Evilution”

Music: Melodic Black Metal
Duration: 40:00 minutes (7 songs)
Good songs: Shadowcrown

The name of the band, Ipsum, is Latin, and since I'm thought Latin, I can analyse this name. I don't know if it is solid and reliable, but I'll try to get it as trustworthy as possible.

As you might know, in ancient Rome, (about 2000 years ago), every decent family had its slaves. And the very rich had a lot of them; one to clean up the vomit, if the lord had ate or drunk too much, one, dressed as a woman, to bring wine to him and his mates, and function as a lady in bed at the same time. Several to prepare his food, and to select guests that jumped out in excessive drinking, rudeness or gluttony, for the next meal. Some to punish the ones that had misbehaved in sneezing during a meal. Or that had talked, something the ones whose lips weren't stitched together suffered from. Etc.

Born as a slave meant live as a slave, and, unless you were very lucky, die as a slave. All these slaves formed a community, with the sole purpose to serve their lord. They all had one language, which differed from the common Roman words: the speech of the slaves. As I said, their lord was their sole goal and sole right in their lives, this lord was threaded like a god, and had the central role in their miserable existence. Therefore, in the slave language, the lord was called “Ipsum”. With this, “dominus” (Latin for lord) was intended, but in normal Latin, this meant “he himself”.

So this band is called “He Himself”, spoken by slaves. Because this is black metal, I think I must make a parallel between the slaves' master and Satan. So this name implies more than you would think of. “Ipsum” is, in other words, something like: “We all have miserable lives, we all serve Satan, our master, our one goal in life; Satan is almighty, and we'll die for him”.

I don't know if all of this was intended, so we should ask Sarah who plays guitars in the band, and who came up with the name.

This Swiss band was formed in 1999, out of another band, in that year they released a Demo, but not much had been done afterwards until now. Due to some changes in line-up, the band has evolved, and does no more keyboard stuff. The music has very much in common with bands like Dark Fortress: raw melodic black metal. Only this music is not as multidimensional as Dark Fortress' music. So no clean female vocals, no keyboard, and little Celtic and Viking influences. Michelle, on the vocals, does a good job, not as good as for example Angela Gossow (Arch Enemy), but still pretty decent. She manages to add that female touch that no male vocalist is capable of. Her voice is, like most black metal vocals, pretty tiresome if you listen to the record for more than two times in a row.

The music is pretty complex and has some very good moments. The band needs to do something about the songwriting though; they often get lost during songs, what results in boringness during too long atmospheric parts and stretched melodies. There are no real filler on this album though, but only one killer, for the band seems to have saved all their remaining talent for the last track, which really is an outstanding mix of complex melodies.

I was immediately fond of the great lyrics, although they are satanic, they are like good poetry. On the third track, The Last Of Gethsemane, work of a poet was used. I really like this, and it adds a nice touch to the songs. The band does just a little more than just melodic black; there are shades of Thrashy Swedish Death in it too.

If you take it all together, this is a good record, but with some flaws. This might turn out to be a great band, if they keep Michelle.

note: 7.0/10

Tracklist

01 New Model Inferno
02 Porteur De Lumiere
03 The Last Of Gethsemane
04 Silent Skies
05 My End
06 L'Oeuvre Au Noir
07 Shadowcrown