Cryptic Nature - 2017 - Pandor

(83:08; Rock Company)

Track list:
1. A Dragon's Tale 2:01
2. Regnum Draconis 3:35
3. Aenoor 3:18
4. Glynyd 5:03
5. Gol Matoo - Meteorite Impact 9:02
6. Ael Hathor 7:58
7. Ieeryah 7:29
8. Pandor's Adoption 6:20
9. The Meeting 7:06
10. Tayla's Teachings 2:56
11. The Prophecy - Tayla's Mission 6:35
12. Consulting Serna 7:02
13. Certamen Ultimus 7:26
14. Salus Orbis 7:17

Line-up:
Koos Thönissen - guitars, synthesizers, bass, mandolin, percussion, vibra slap, didgeridoo, drums, soundscapes
with:
Jeroen van den Biggelaar - guitars
Ron van Rhee - flute
Sascha Burchardt - vocals
Emmelie van Deurzen - vocals
Jacqueline van Elsbergen - vocals
Cathy van der Valk - vocals
Koos Thönissen - vocals
Anita Alberts - backing - vocals
Ian Jillings - voice
Huw Lloyd Jones - voice


Dutch project Cryptic Nature is the creative vehicle of composer and multi-instrumentalist Koos J. Thönissen, and with the double album "Pandor" he set out to create his very own rock opera by writing the story as well as composing the songs and playing the majority of the instruments on the album all by himself. This is the first and so far only album released under the Cryptic Nature moniker, and was released through Dutch label Rock Company back in 2017.

There's no specific reason for why this album has been languishing in my pile of CDs I just haven't had the time and capacity to handle with, other than being swamped with music at a time when my capacity for writing was at a rather reduced stage, but some part of me kind of wish for me to have left this album in that pile for a bit longer. Because this album is quite clearly a passion project by a passionate artist, and I really hate having the role of being the straight forward and honest person for such ventures.

This is one of those albums where there's just nothing really remarkable going on. I find that the songs tend to be too uniform and steady going, spending too much time in exploring certain phases and generally speaking not being all that interesting. The traditional heavy metal with some detours into extreme metal and an instance or two that sounds like early days Venom having a go at doom metal are okayish enough, and the cold and often a bit harsh sounding keyboard textures used to add symphonic flair to some of these creations are okayish too. The gentler pieces, some with more of a folk music vibe, function well enough too. But there's noting really striking in any of these songs, and for me at least with some simplistic drum patterns being a minor negative.

The most bothersome aspects of this album comes in the vocals department though.

The spoken word openings to most of the songs range from fairly detrimental to okayish, with one such spoken word voice coming across as heavily accented and one comes across as rather more professional with such matters. The words fail to engage me though, although I may be a bit of a spoiled listener to such matters after having read a few thousand fantasy books over the years.  

The vocals in the songs themselves are a bit across the range too, with some vocalists being much better at some types of music than others, and some vocalists that just have a voice that rubs me the wrong way. This is one of the few albums of this type where I would actually state that the distorted, extreme metal vocals was among the better on the album, while the concluding track 'Salus Orbis' strikes me as the song to listen to that feature many of my subjective misgivings revolving around the lead vocals for the singing done on this creation. While the opening cut 'A Dragon's Tale' is the prime example of the spoken words parts that really failed to engage me due to a combination of the words and the manner in which they are conveyed.

That the mix and production doesn't really help elevate the overall experience is another slight misgiving for this case. That being said, this album isn't one I feel could be all that much improved by way of a higher grade of mix and production quality alone.

Music is, of course, very much of a subjective experience, and I'm fairly certain that there are fans of this album out there that would shake their heads in disbelief if they ever came across my sentiments for this creation. And I can see why some people would feel an attraction to this concept album too, but for me at least this will be an album with a more narrow niche appeal due to the factors that have been detailed. If a high fantasy concept album with various forms of atmospheric laden music and several subsets of metal that are combined with an ongoing storyteller role explored inside of a rock opera context strikes you as an appealing proposition, then you are most certainly in the target audience for this album. And then it'll be a matter of subjective taste in music if you enjoy this album or not. Where my perception is that more people will find this to be an underwhelming venture rather than a compelling one.

Olav M. Björnsen, September 2024

Links:
https://crypticnature.bandcamp.com/
https://rockcompany.nl/