The Eminence of Nature is Coronatus’ ninth studio album. Before claiming this album as my own for review, I performed my usual quick search on the AMG site to see which one of my coworkers was historically responsible for dishing out either love or distaste in response to Coronatus’ eight other albums. Had to be either Twelve or TheKenWord given their public and overzealous love of the cheesiest of the symphonic metals. I was pleasantly surprised to see “No results for ‘Coronatus’ Try another search?” pop up on my screen. Eight albums and not one was covered by AMG?!
“Since when has a disappointing album held any of the staff back before?” I asked myself. The fact that Coronatus was never picked up previously, though, was a very blatant sign. Alas, I have only myself to blame for what I have now subjected my ears to. If there is one positive word to describe Coronatus, it is prolific. Coronatus is a German symphonic metal band that has been quietly releasing an album almost every single year since 2007. Given this and that Coronatus has technically been active since 1999, I was surprised I had never even heard of them. The Eminence of Nature is a concept album of sorts, with each song touching on themes of either nature or climate protection. Clocking in at a beastly 78 minutes, this album looks like a daunting one to delve into on the surface. The second half of the record is simply an instrumental version of the first half, however, making the meat of the record come in at under 40 minutes.
I am not a fan of tearing down bands for the fun of it, nor do I think anyone is in a position to do so. It pains me to dish out a score lower than 2.0 (I’m not keeping track, but I think this may be my first). The best I can do is give what I believe is constructive feedback based on what I heard and experienced when listening to the album. For me, what makes The Eminence of Nature most difficult to listen to is the poor mixing job. On almost every single track, there were numerous points in which the mixing choices or lack thereof truly baffled me. On the Within Temptation inspired “S.O.P,” the guitar solo sounded tepid at best as a result of its placement in the mix. The worst offender, though, was on “The Place I Love” when whiny pop rock vocals joined in to contrast with the operatic style vocals. The vocal layers clashed so drastically that the song ventured into unlistenable territory. I appreciated the beautiful violin kicking off “Set Sail to North,” but again, the operatic and pop rock vocal layers failed to interlock moments later in the track, throwing the entire song off a cliff.
I respect what Coronatus are trying to do on The Eminence of Nature. The album maintains high energy, excitement, and bombast throughout, and I unexpectedly found myself humming the catchy melody of “No Planet B” and singing “No planet B. No more Earth. Only one chance” when straightening up my apartment one evening. Coronatus continue to demonstrate potential, but ultimately committed too many crimes to earn my allegiance. The weak, unsteady vocals and asynchronous parts on “Echo of Souls” combined with the slow, immature chug of “9000 Years Ago” and the apparent absence of effort put into production and mixing apart from the haphazard layers of cheesy reverb made me wonder whether they should only get one chance as well.
Sadly, I cannot say I will be visiting The Eminence of Nature again. The vibe of the album is somehow fun and energetic despite the heavy themes and messages, but each listen was an arduous chore. I am trying my best to avoid giving feedback in a form most familiar and painless for humans to give: the feedback sandwich, a layering of constructive feedback in between two scrumptious layers of praise. So I’ll end with this. While Coronatus’ band name is Latin for “crowned,” the German Nightwish wannabe group fail miserably to live up to their name, especially since they have had nine chances thus far to do so.
Rating: 1.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Massacre Records
Websites: facebook.com/CoronatusOfficial/ | coronatus.de
Releases Worldwide: November 29th, 2019
