UMUR
Veronika Decides to Die is the 3rd full-length studio album by Danish melodic doom/ death metal act Saturnus. The album was released in May 2006 by Firebox Records. Grau Records took care of the release in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
It´s been six long years since the release of the band´s second full-length studio album Martyre (2000), but not much has changed since that album was released. The music style is still melodic doom/ death metal with a sorrowfilled/ melancholic atmosphere. Acts like My Dying Bride and November´s Doom still come to mind. The quality of the compositions are fortunately even better than on the already great Martyre, so the lack of an original sound, which could have been a problem, isn´t that much of an issue. The vocal style varies between reciting/ speaking vocals, deep growls and raw singing. The lyrics are poetic in nature and suits the music very well. While there are certainly heavy doom laden guitar riffs enough to safisfy any doom metal fan, the addition of keyboards/ piano and melodic guitar leads give the music a "lighter" touch than most other doom metal acts.
The production by Flemming Rasmussen ( Metallica, Morbid Angel, Blind Guardian...etc.) is powerful and detailed.
Overall Veronika Decides to Die is just a notch better than Martyre and it´s great to hear that the band have honed their sound in the 6 years between the two albums. A 3.5 star rating is deserved.