Madder Mortem, in their latest effort, falls somewhere between your standard, female fronted atmospheric gothic metal and The Diablo Swing Orchestra. In their latest effort, the Norwegian 5-piece only managed to spit out an arguable 15 minutes of original music. (The final track on the EP is merely an extended version of the title track.) The music itself, although quite good, isn’t really metal at all. Thus, Where Dream & Day Collide will probably only be purchased by die hard fans of the band.
One thing that Madder Mortem has always done surprisingly well, is generate a very clean and distinct atmosphere upon which they carefully layer their instrumentation. The opening (and closing) tracks possess a flow that is quite easy to access. The music, although relaxing, contains just the slightest pinch of bizarreness, which is the reason Tim Burton should probably consider asking Madder Mortem to do the soundtrack for whatever Hollywood classic he and Johnny Depp decide to fuck up next. The following two tracks, “Jitterheart” and “The Purest Strain” make for good polka metal. Although these songs completely ruin the seriousness of the album, they are very well produced and would go well with some white makeup and swing dancing. “Quietude” is a lot more somber, and features some of Agnete’s peaceful vocal melodies and a solemn atmosphere.
Although mixing music this retro with metal will not ever become a popular trend, the songs on Where Dream & Day Collide are enjoyable. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough time in the day for someone to listen to all the new albums coming out, and this is definitely one that will be skipped over by most people, as it should. However, if you’ve actually gotten this far in the review, you might as well check out their music video for the title track, it’s worth four minutes of your time if you’re curious/bored enough.
