This Polish outfit VIA MISTICA, founded back in 1998, tries on their debut Testamentum something similar like Tristania. But it gets clear pretty fast: the footsteps of their paragons are still too large. One song sounds as like as the next one, often too lengthy and boring, lacking of variety and originality. The label offers Doom, but you won’t find anything in matter of this. It’s just heavy-melancholic and slow Gothic Metal. VIA MISTICA of all lives on the voice of cellist Kaska but directly the opening intro In Hora Mortis Nostre is a bad entry in matter of singing. Over the course of the entire album her voice emerges as something likeable, although it lacks the typical problem: this lady is singing too often on high levels, where her voice doesn’t has enough power anymore and she uses to often special stylistic means. That she can sing in other fields and that it works well prove songs like I Would Die… . Cello parts and stuff like that are usual in their characteristics. They are nice but does not offer anything new, likewise the contrasted vocals of her elf-like singing and the growls of guitarist Marecki, which he doesn’t use that often.
Design of cover and booklet is sort of uninspired and you will find a lot of orthographical mistakes in the lyrics. Hey, nobody's perfect but isn’t it the job of the label to have an eye on things like that?
Anyway, Testamentum is nice as a debut but much uninspired. There is much more potential, but it’s up to the band …

Via Mistica