Seal the tomb, please! - At the expense of angering an evil wizard, I must add some perspective to the reviews below. In general Amazon reviews of non-classical genre music tend to be inflated and overly generous. And I hate to render a scathing review. But the praise heaped on this CD is going too too far. I can t even find one memorable song on this entire record! Each song (if one can dignify them with the name) consists of a monotonous repetition of two or three notes ad nauseum. In his inspired moments, the artist added some incoherent voices in the background. This CD is the audio equivalent of Chinese water torture. Someone below made a comparison to a video game sound tract and quite so, perhaps for Pong or Space Invaders. By the stage of the 8 bit Nintendo the better video game sound tracts had already bested Crypt. And this recording isn t even a faint shadow of the rightly famed Conan the Barbarian sound tract. Please save your money for that CD.
pure epic-goth fun - This isn t deep, this is just plain old video-game-soundtrack style fun. It s like New-Age wallpaper music for evil sorcerers. Mortiis may be a ridiculous attention-grabbing clown who sold out and made dance music later in his career, but that doesn t detract one whit from the noises that come out of your cd player when you put this thing in it. And those noises are some that you can listen to all day. Mortiis was a big fan of the legendary Conan the Barbarian movie soundtrack, as is anybody with any sense who enjoys this kind of music, but unlike the rest of the Basil-wannabes, he actually had the talent to pull this kind of thing off. It s not Conan, but it s really good, and whether you re a gothic vampire nerd or a dungeon-crawling dragon-slaying wizard nerd, you ll love this, since it s about halfway between the two.
Atmospheric ambient music.. - This is completly different then his new stuff!It s beautiful and epic, and at one part I started having flashbacks from a twisted nightmare I used to have when I was younger. EXTREMLY DARK AND DEPRESSIVE!
Best CD Ever (Mwahaha!) - If the computer let me give more than 5 stars, I would give the CD 20 stars. One word to describe it- beautiful. I am a fan of both medieval folk music, new age, and black metal, and Mortiis morphs the these genres wondrously. The songs are very ambient and atmospheric, simply listening can take one into a Tolkein book. And I ve dreamed of being there in Middle Earth and if I close my eyes and listen, it s the next best thing. I recommend En Sirkel Av Kosmisk Kaos [A Circle of Cosmic Chaos]. If you like this, I also recommend the bands Tristania, Theatre of Tragedy, and Opera IX. If you don t like it, well, I think there is something wrong with you.
Beautiful atmosphere - Well I never would have thought that I would have been listening to folk music, but I was curious about what the ex-bassist for the kings of black metal Emperor had cooking up now a days. He has definitely stayed with the imagery of black metal, it s darkness and manner of dress, except of course for his makeup, which consists of elf ears and an extremely long nose, which purposefully make him look like some kind of elf king. Influenced by J.R.R. Tolkien s stories of hobbits, elves, wizards, and all, Mortiis takes you on an epic journey, which impressed me quite a bit. This album is pure atmosphere and imagery, sounding a lot like the intros and segues used in a lot of black metal albums, listening to the pounding drums, and epic keyboards you are taken away to a land of ruined castles, fierce and honorable battles, and all the other things that a life in Norway can fill your imagination with. This album is beautiful, brilliant, complex, although repetitive at times. En Sirkel av Kosmisk Kaos (A Circle of Cosmic Chaos) scared the ... out of me, I was listening to the lush beautiful landscape that Mortiis was painting and all of a sudden this ghoulish growling voice came out of my speaker, which shows this album can take many directions even within a song! I also enjoyed Vandreren s Sang (The Song of the Wanderer), and Under Tarnets Skygge (Underneath the Shadow of the Tower.) I personally am more into more aggressive music of course, but this was a nice change of pace for once. I would not recommend this album to a metalhead, or death metalhead, but to some black metallers who enjoy later Burzum, and the dark atmosphere of black metal, and also some goths. I would also recommend this album to anyone who appreciates gothic medieval folk-type music.