Mirrorthrone is the project of one Vladmir Cochet from Switzerland who writes the songs, plays guitar, keyboards and bass and also does the drum programming, all in his bedroom. Mirrorthrone is just one of four projects that Cochet is presently involved in and Gangrene is Mirrorthrone’s third album. He’s been pretty prolific and is still mostly unknown outside of a seemingly small circle of ardent fans.

Mirrorthrone is essentially symphonic black metal but it’s also a bit more than just that. Album opener Dismay starts off in typical black metal fashion like early Dimmu Borgir but Cochet shows off his interest in other genres pretty quickly as he effortlessly melds black, death and classic heavy metal to create a pretty unique sound. Also, the mix of clean and harsh vocals works quite well. The song is a lengthy at over eleven minutes and occasionally comes across as a bit cut and paste through the transitions from part to part. As it turns out, that’s pretty much the only problem on this album. The songs tend to be too long with the six songs on offer clocking in at well over 60 minutes. No One by My Side has some terrific guitar parts and keyboard playing and again the mix of harsh and clean vocals works well but the problem is the same. It’s just a bit too long to hold my interest right through. It’s on album closer So Frail that Mirrorthrone really comes into its own. A lot shorter than the other songs at just under seven minutes, it has a melancholic feel to it that works well and is a terrific album closer. If only the rest of the songs were a bit shorter.

There’s no doubting Vladmir Cochet’s talent. His guitar playing is quite terrific and there’s a certain sense of ease with which he goes from playing black metal to the occasional technical death metal riff to nicely done acoustic parts and the odd blazing solo. The drum machine sound took a while to get used to but in the end it’s a negligible criticism. This album reminded me a lot of Scholomance which was another extreme metal band with some very talented musicians. Gangrene though is a much blacker beast and while the sense of romanticism is all pervading on this album as well, I think Scholomance benefitted from better song writing.

All in all, this is an album worth checking out if you like your extreme metal played with plenty of skill. I think the songwriting needs to be tightened up a bit as some of the sections just seem a bit pointless but overall Gangrene is a pretty good album. Those of you who remember Scholomance will find plenty to like on this album and even otherwise, if you like epic symphonic black metal you might find this to your liking.



Label - Red Stream
Year of Release - 2008