'Splendor’ is melodic and swirling, all very grand and uplifting. ‘18K’ has an immense sound to it, the sequence relatively low in the mix and so much is happening around it that it is often hard to make out and even more difficult to concentrate on as your attention will be pulled from one happening to another. Its amazing that so much could be fitted into a three minute piece. Title track next, another melodic one full of majestic splendour but also with a touch of sadness. A superb fast rumbling sequence blasts through ‘The Solar Disc’. A nice big fast rumbling one, very intense and never letting up for a second, in fact increasing in ferocity right to the end. Wonderful track. Sequences again on ‘Solis Artus’ and as before at top speed. ‘Faerie Magick’ features a gorgeous melancholy lead line, extremely beautiful and yet the’ twee filter’ was not bothered with it in the slightest. The sequencer kicks back in for ’Spiritus Lenitatis’ but this time it is much slower and plodding. ‘Kozmotron’ picks up the pace again but I felt the sequence could have done with a bit more variety, a criticism that could just as equally have been levelled at the next track ‘Illumination’. ‘Aethyria’ is a splendid track. Cosmic bleeps and warbles increase in intensity, almost as if there is a storm in space which is brewing but never quite breaks. ‘Un Danse Petite’ is another very melodic number, a beautiful track, even a mayhem merchant such as myself was touched by it. ‘Solis Occasus’ finishes the album off with another gentle sequence. I enjoyed this CD, it is more polished than his first ‘Lux Aeternae’ and Steven Stokes the man behind Elemental obviously poured a lot of himself into it but in the polishing it lost some of its bite. It is certainly a much more emotional album than the first and this is probably what spoilt it for me a little. It is also, however, the aspect that a lot of people will find the most appealing and on balance I would expect this album to sell even better than his first. (DL)
