‘Cardinal VII’ starts with a thrashy song, called ‘New World Obscure`. The triplet-picked riffs give this song a very heavy feeling. By adding some Gregorian choirs to it, they create a melancholic and sometimes even a depressing frame of mind. Another song I really like is the title track ‘Cardinal VII’. This is a fast song and the vocals are used in a very fine way. There are moments on this album of Ashes To Ashes in which the ambience reminds me of Therion. Both use classic elements and choirs to enhance their music. The parts I really like on this album are the slower and calmer parts, which contain a lot of emotion. But also a blast beat, for instance in the song ‘Dualism’ really puts down its mark.

The album could have been a bit heavier if they’d added more of these and I would have liked that because it would have created a greater difference between the emotional and the heavy parts. On their self-released album ‘Shapes Of Spirits’ they got a lot of comment, especially the vocals of singer Kenneth Brastad, they were said to be too monotonous. Evidently Brastad has taken this comment seriously. The vocals on ‘Cardinal VII’ are very divers and they are brutal as well as sensitive. No more comment possible on this point. In the doomy song `Sic Transit Gloria Mundi` the vocals almost made me produce some tears. Let the ambience flow with Ashes to Ashes; dark, melancholic and powerful.