The very beginning of "Memento Audere Semper" lyrics is an extract from a poem by Federico Garcia Lorca.
Cadaveria is a curious project, best described as black metal musicians who wanted to explore other styles and started combining melodic black metal with alternative metal, thrash metal, a goth aesthetic and lyrics about the dark complexities of the human mind. If that sounds interesting to you, I'd say this is the album where that peculiar mix of styles is the most perfectly executed.
What I mean is that this album has the best balance between ferocious and melodic, dark and accessible, and also has probably my set of favorite Cadaveria songs, aside from a few tracks on their other albums. It's an album that contains both the black thrash monsters "100.000 Faces" and "Anagram", and the ballad "The Dream", as well as the more gentle and devoid of harsh vocals, but still filled with dark atmospheres and heavy riffs "Before the Apes Came". That one, as well as tracks like "Memento Audere Semper", have almost doom metal-inspired riffs, or maybe they're grunge mixed with black and gothic metal?
And that's why black/gothic metal is a good label for this album, but not the most precise one. I'd say this is also the type of band that's more about creating a particular mood than fitting into a specific subgenre. And that mood is madness, basically, and the depths of the human mind. There's a lot of talk about expanding your mind and seeing more than meets the eye. "Anagram" is a good example of that, being about confusion and trying to understand something just out of your reach. Or "Before the Apes Came", about a forgotten magical civilization that you could still have access to by mysterious means.
But another closely related theme that often comes up on the album is artistic creation and imagination. "Queen of Forgotten" seems to be from the point of view of an extremely powerful and strange imaginary friend that has been, well forgotten over the years and wants be remembered. "Memento Audere Semper" is about the need to express oneself through writing. "100.000 Faces" is less obvious, but still mentions "modern artists explore encoded forms of expression". This is a topic I haven't heard many bands sing about, and it's one I could talk about for years, so this album has successfully grabbed my attention.
Of course, an album about creation should be creative. And it succeeds in that regard, with its unique fusion of black, goth, thrash and grunge that will remind you of various acts but not be a direct copy of any of them. Most of all, it has one of Cadaveria's best vocal performance of all the various albums she's made with her many bands. She makes a truly impressive use of her instantly recognizable raspy and witchlike growl, her shrill singing and more laidback and lower, but still eerie singing, sometimes all in the same song.
As for the songs, I'd really recommend "Anagram", "Before the Apes Came", 100.000 Faces" and "Memento Audere Semper", which are not only the highlights of the album, but also some of my favorite Cadaveria songs. Other tracks, such as "Atypical Suggestions by a Dead Artist", "Exorcism to Chaos" and "Queen of Forgotten", are also very enjoyable, despite using some of the same riffs. The real weak link would be "The Dream", which is a little too soft and too "normal" for a Cadaveria songs, but still fits the album's theme of imagination and creation, I guess.
Despite this, the album is very enjoyable. My 100% ratings are not necessarily for perfect albums, as you could always find weaknesses in any great album if you looked hard enough. They are for really damn good albums, that you could listen to a hundred times and still love, that could be considered classics in some way and that I recommend you listen to right now if you haven't heard them yet. And that's how I would describe "In Your Blood". This is one of Cadaveria's best efforts, and a perfect introduction to this one of a kind band.
Official promo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Official promo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
