TMQ First Take: MITHRAS

MITHRAS
Behind The Shadows Lie Madness
(Candlelight Records USA)

Beneath the overwhelming ugliness of the basic chrome death-metal cosmetics lies a shimmering, mesmerizing fantasy world of wonder. Yup, put aside for a moment the leonine growls that sound like a wizened, toothy hunter on the prowl; ignore the earache-inducing, suicidal fretboard runs that cut like a scalpel through flesh; pay no attention to the lightning-like drumbeats that hit you in the forehead like an out-of-control Gatling gun. There…beneath all the bombast, the blurry riffing and the imploding rhythms…there’s the sweet spot that only Mithras is capable of creating. The moonlight glinting off the gossamer threads of the spider’s web before he falls upon his prey with a fierce hunger…that’s Behind The Shadows Lie Madness. And like the glimpse of a shadow of something that’s not supposed to be there in the darkness, the credits roll, the CD ends, and you’re left breathless at the sheer insanity of it all.

Mithras "Into Black Holes Of Oblivion"

(Click on CD cover to buy Behind The Shadows Lie Madness from Amazon.com)