While shopping at your nearby dealer, you might find an album with a cover that seems more or less familiar to you, but you don't remember having seen this band's moniker anywhere else. Mysterium's cover reminds in fact alot of Paradise Lost's Draconian Times. That may be why it seemed so familiar. Anyway, that doesn't explain why I picked it up while looking for recent releases. Of course I listened to it before buying it... I always thought that with a great looking cover bands might sell more records. I am not saying that Mysterium's cover is that great, but it's far better than lots of other out there.

Let me tell you I don't regret having picked that one up. It's definitely a very good release. Not yet a masterpiece, but the band is heading for releasing a masterpiece if they continue to evolve like that. I have not listened thoroughly to their first album Glowering Facades Of The Night, but I have had a couple of listens to some of their previous tracks. The progression is quite amazing, and you really feel like this is another band. Music wise, the band blends a lot of different influences such as Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, Moonspell, or even Opeth and early Evereve and Katatonia. I have noticed some likeness with Ashes To Ashes' Cardinal VII and Divercia's Modus Operandi which if you remember, were both considered as two of last year's highlights. I am not saying the band is or has been influenced by those bands, but this is my opinion. Everyone knows that everyone perceives music with different ears.

Mysterium shows some great musical qualities on their sophomore album. They've crafted a bunch of long, interesting pieces of music that are worth listening to alot because they are not repetitive and not boring at all. Some of the doom metal bands tend to repeat themselves and their music tends to become boring after some listens. The album starts off with the instrumental track Ambivalentika which I consider as a filler and the weakest song of the Soulwards. Things become deadly serious with the second track Within Tempted Moon. This is quite an energic song that gathers lots of different influences with fast or ambient passages, clean vocals and some great harsh vocals. Clean male vocals and female vocals are what makes the little difference, but here there's no doubt that those harsh vocals are what make Mysterium's second album so pleasant to listen to. Track three Sirrah is a little more slow paced but remains a very interesting song with some rythm changes and those harsh vocals. Tracks between 5 and 8 minutes unfold one by one until you reach the end of the album and you crave for more. As described on their label home page, Mysterium present themselves with a modern and totally hard wall of sound. Indeed, a great wall of sound it is. However the band proposes a couple of weak tracks The Se Mirroed 1s and Spiral Mystery which are two slow paced songs that unfortunately denote with the rest of the album and thus weakened a little bit the overal quality of the album although they bring some diversity.

My conclusion is that this band is ready to become a name in the music scene such as Paradise Lost and The Gathering did it some years ago. Unfortunately, with the overwhelming quantities of good or band productions these days, their current album or their future albums might go unnoticed to the ears of some of you. Believe me, that's a great record and worth investing your money on.