I'm not sure where I heard of the Wisconsin-based band Luna Mortis, but I noticed they were strangely described as a mixture of power and thrash metal. It sounds interesting I thought to myself, so I decided to check out their debut album on Century Media. The first thing that really caught my attention was the album cover artwork. One thing I tend to really like is when a band takes the time to think about the first thing someone is going to see that represents their album and their music. As you can see, the artwork looks mystical and iconic, albeit something you might expect to see on a gothic metal album. But if you anticipated that from the outset, you'd be extremely surprised by what comes out of your speakers.

I love the way the first track starts: driving guitars, furious drum work, something that just makes you sit up and take notice of what you're listening to. Then the soaring, power metal vocals come in. At first I'm not too sure about the vocalist's style, but she's not bad and I keep listening. She actually reminds me very much of Magali Luyten of Beautiful Sin. Soon some guttural, thrash-inspired vocals find their way into the song, which I think are actually pretty damn good. Both the guitar and drum work on this first track is fantastic. It is not overly complex but it shows that these guys know what they're doing. The song overall gives me a great first impression and I can't wait to hear more. Ruin starts out much the same way with the heavy guitar riffs and double-bass drumming. This song is a bit slower than the last one, but still really hits you with intensity. The Departure is the first ballad type song on the album. It's a good song that starts out with some nice acoustic guitar work and then the clean voice of Mary Zimmer. There is also some great guitar solo work, but that can be said for just about every song on this album. Guitarists Brian Koenig and Cory Scheider are quick to show you what they can do, but I never find them going too far with unnecessary breakneck seven minute long guitar solos, though they are clearly capable of such. The title track starts off with an excellent melodic guitar lead that opens into some furious vocal work by Zimmer once again. Her growled vocals do sound somewhat like Angela Gossow’s of Arch Enemy fame, but don't let that turn you away if you're not a fan of her style as she also has an excellent clean singing voice which she makes use of just as often if not more. The rest of the songs use the same basic formula, the band going from mid-paced to faster songs for the most part. Zimmer switches her vocal style from song to song as well; sometimes the music is dominated by her aggressive, growled style and at others by the clean power metal style. For the most part the songwriting tends to be centered on heavy, melodic guitar work with some thrash and power metal elements thrown in from time to time. Overall their sound is comparable to other melodic death bands such as Insomnium and Raintime, which is why I classified them as such.

I find myself really able to get into this music, it just makes me want to sing along, headbang, and play some air guitar. The members of Luna Mortis clearly know how to write good, catchy songs without going overboard and trying to prove something, which is an excellent way for this young American band to start their career. Although their music does not try to reinvent the wheel, it is solid and iconic without too much imitation. Overall it shows that the members are talented and with some more experience and progression in their sound I believe they could easily be one of the best modern melodic death metal bands out there. I look forward to their next album.