Persefone - Shin-ken (2009)^{Release ID: 7337}

So after reviewing Persefone's demo-gone-debut-album Truth Inside the Shades and their legendary concept album Core (the latter being this month's Infinite feature release chosen by me), why stop there?! I'm ready to continue my Persefone album reviewing journey, and up next is another concept album, this based on an old-school Japanese samurai movie. This is Shin-Ken!

Just from seeing the awesome album cover below, you know you're in for a wild ride. The album is incredible as well, with lots of variation, enough to turn what would've been just death metal into full-on deathly progressive metal.

Throughout this album, you'll find a few "Book" element interludes that meant for listening, not reading, starting with "The Ground Book". Then the shredding heaviness and melody rises with "Fall to Rise", a fine song to start the conceptual pattern. "Death Before Dishonour" is, for me, the best song of the album, with superb drumming. A killer melo-deathly progressive metal highlight! Then there's "The Water Book" interlude, reminding me of some of The Ocean's ambient-sounding symphonic interludes. The super insanely awesome shredding solos of "The Endless Path" really make my day.

"The Wind Book" is an interlude that sounds like something Mastodon would use as part of one of their songs. The wonderful piano-led ballad-ish song "Purity" is great in the lyrics, soloing, and riffing that still stays metal in the calm nature. "Rage Stained Blade" brings back the usual deathly rage, and it's still good but not so memorable. Strangely that amount of fire was used up before "The Fire Book", another calm interlude.

"Kusanagi" is the second-best song and the most metal-sounding one in the album, with awesome shredding riffs and cool piano melodies. However, the lyrics are a slight flaw because while they're in English, if you haven't read the lyrics, they would be hard to understand. I guess that's growling and screaming for you! The 11-minute title track is split into two parts, and I can hear why. "Part I" is very fast and often pounding with lots of growling in an overall great composition. Whereas "Part II" is softer in contrast with some metal. "The Void Book" is so short, consisting of ominous ambience and the slash of a sword. The outro "Japanese Poem" is where you can find your inner peace on a rainy day at the gates. Just like the previous two albums, this one's Japanese edition has a bonus track, a wicked heavy cover of Cacophony's "Sword of the Warrior".

Shin-Ken is an awesome album to love, though some of the lyrics and unclean vocals are hard to like. But that's just SOME, the rest is great! The lyrics are more tolerable in the softer songs than the metal songs in which the instrumentation is the key. Another killer album to get!

Favorites: "Death Before Dishonour", "The Endless Path", "Purity", "Kusanagi", "Shin-Ken Part I", "Shin-Ken Part II", "Sword of the Warrior (Cacophony cover) (bonus track)"