Master the master.

In the Company of Champions | artist: Magus Lord — First of all, I beg M. to get someone else to master the side projects. That out of my system, what to make of this? It starts up with an overloaded gothic thing that in all of its sonics and repetition and choral synth and monophonic electric and rhythmic beats verges into latter Swans territory before rocking out with the metal-meets-volume-wars guitars. Take that all for what you will.

This is not a Lamp album, so I will not discuss Lamp. But I saw Lamp maybe a year or two ago live and mostly wondered what M.'s concept of musical climax was. Because, it was all musical climax all the time. And while I get how that can be intoxicating as a songwriter and composer, it can nonetheless create a certain monotony.

In listening to this Magus Lord release, I'm happy to hear things changed up — though it takes freaking forever to get there: taking nearly to the 7:45 mark of "I Break the Immortal Soul" to, well, break into something that wasn't just pounding. But then when the Anthems-esque synth brass flourish happens at 8:45, it's actually quite nice. (And then back to the pummel).

It is on the third track — "Spirit of Serenity" — that I really wish consideration had been given to mastering. (And this is coming from a guy who mastered Dirt's record to sound like Iggy had gotten into the control room). The intro synth passage is rendered into a kind of mess. And the clean sounds on track 4 don't come across any better.

And let's talk about that track a second. I get the viking-era Bathory nod. But this gets nervously into Ren Faire territory. The chord progression comes off as, well, I don't know if "hokey" is the right word, but play it by yourself on an acoustic guitar and see what you think. And the vocals — when they finally enter — are a weak yell compared to the mighty growl more common (and more effective) throughout M.'s catalog. By the time we got to the saw synth following the galloping Heavy Metal riff, I was fading. I woke up a few minutes later to what sounded like Ovation guitars and a mellotron flute. Ritchie Blackmore would be proud (no shade on Ritchie... he's still one of my favorites).

All of this, of course, is leading up to what I can only describe as a remarkable closing track. From the call-and-respons(ive) riffage to the (really nice) clean vocals to the harmonically rich movements, we've got a serious song on our hands here. The guitars feel a bit more, well, like an arena rock thing. Which is actually a nice way to mix things up. And then right in the middle of the song there is this sort of quick-talk refrain thing that goes on and on and would not sound out of place on a mid-period PiL album.

I downright enjoy this last blast from M. And I don't want to make it sound as though there isn't anything here worth spending time with across the album as a whole. In fact, throughout the album, M. shows signs of brilliance, a keen knowledge and passion for first phase Black Metal, and maybe even a sense of mischief. But, I can't help wanting this to be better than it is. And a big part of that has to do with the lack of dynamics and the gravitation towards redlining the boards. | 2.75 out of 5 stars