It was late at night when I met our publishing director in order to give me some promo CDs to be reviewed. On my way home I always put randomly a CD from the new reviews to listen to. So the debut album from CANTATA SANGUI was the lucky one that night. And while listening to On Rituals And Correspondence In Constructed Realities I begun to think that I was the lucky one.

This band (Finland) was formed in 1997 and after four demos and some lineup changes, they finally released their first full-length album. The last change was made last year. After the recordings, Mika A.A. Hyytinen left the band for family reasons and Juha Vilhunen came to his place.Not much more to say about this sextet except what the two words in the name of the band stand for: Cantata means A musical composition, often using a sacred text, comprising recitatives, arias, and choruses and Sangui means Blood.

After listening to the album for a couple of times I started searching for information about the band, and checked the lineup etc. And there was the surprise: Two bass players and not a single guitar player! The music is based on a variety of four, five and twelve string bass guitars. And believe me you will not even notice it, probably due to the keyboards and the twelve string bass. CANTATA SANGUI walks on the, let's say, gothic Metal path, but they also have influences from the Doom scene too. What I loved in this album ewas the earthly voice of Anna. She doesn't try to sound like the big names of this scene, by singing on high scales. As for the two-bass idea, this is working perfectly for the band. CANTATA SANGUI's music may be something that you think you've listen to before, but we all have to admit that by not having any guitars at all you are trying something different.

On Rituals And Correspondence In Constructed Realities is not at all a bad album for it's genre. Combining Metal, doom, goth, growls, female vocals and two basses, they manage to earn my attention. Of course the band has to work even harder and not sit on this very good debut album. Best songs for me: Fruitarians, No Longer In The Eyes Of Aletheia, with a MOONSPELL-like intro, Broken Stars and We'll Have It On Us. Keep up the good work.