Metal Rules

Grade: 2.75/5

Denmark's Compos Mentis are a young band still finding and developing their path. They blend together Swedish styled melodic death metal and atmospheric/melodic black metal resulting in a whole that comes off as sounding a little more like it's from the black metal atmospheric realm but with more aggression. The band thankfully believes that the first two tracks on this EP ('Divine Wrath' and 'Beyond Salvation') are best representative of their direction while the third is more experimental. 'Divine Wrath' has a cool rhythm with some tremelo picking. There is a slower part in the song that defines their 'atmospheric' element. The black metalish vocals are monotone, but are not too bad. 'Beyond Salvation' has some cool harmony guitars at the beginning followed by some intense drumming. On the EP's third track you get to hear their 'Experimentation.' That means more 'sleepy metal.' Yup, 'morose' talking over acoustic guitar for an intro...gee, where have we heard that before? Thankfully, the band views this song as more experimental and not where they are heading. That is good to know because I had to skip through this song, as it was quite unpleasant. The closing track, 'Till The end Of Eternity', is a melancholic piano piece from beginning to end. It's played very well but I wonder why out of only 4 songs one of them had to be this? If it was a full-length CD I could overlook one out of style track. Rating: 2.75/5 - Reviewer: EvilG