Garth Arum is the project of multi-instrumentalist/vocalist/composer Nightmarer, who tackles guitar, bass, keyboards, synth programming, fx, and vocals on this latest CD The Dawn of a New Creation. Obviously he has a love for death metal, black metal, as well as symphonic progressive rock, as there's plenty of all three here, which makes for an intriguing listen. Some well placed keyboards throughout the album give it that proggy, often times cinematic flavor, but make no mistake about it, this is an extreme metal album at its core. Evil growls and screams battle it out with crooning melodic vocals, with the occasional female vocal in spots courtesy of guests Lady Carrot (no, I'm not making that up),Cecilia Tallo, Slo, and Camille . There's a certain 'epic-ness' about this whole album, which you can hear on the crushing "A Barrage of Hate", and a track like "Lucid Dreams" really has a lot going for it, as it jumps from bombastic prog to intricate prog-metal, to symphonic death metal, with a little dab of Frank Zappa inspired zaniness thrown in for good measure.
To be honest, there's a lot to like here on The Dawn of a New Creation, though at times it can be somewhat of a schizophrenic listening experience. Nightmarer apparently has three more albums in the works under the Garth Arum moniker, so it will be interesting to see where he takes this next.
Track Listing
1.
A new creation
2.
Shadows of the past
3.
A barrage of hate
4.
The path to oblivion
5.
Labyrinth of lies
6.
Rusty hands
7.
Trip (part I)
8.
Lucid dreams
9.
Like an angel
10.
Yearned freedom
11.
Trip (part II)
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