I can't believe what my poor ears have to go through every time I come across a release like this one! Why is the Metal world flooded with either Metalcore or female fronted Metal kind of shit? I guess that you have already understood we are dealing with the second situation.

The German metallers have been active since 2002 and debuted in 2007 with Lux Noctis. Their sophomore full-length effort and second album through the German Massacre brings some fresh air to the band with a second guitarist (Johann Frey) and a second female singer, Ada Flechtner. Unfortunately, this didn't change anything in the music and CORONATUS remains a deadly boring act.

What can I tell about the music? It is the classic kind of Metal with female vocals, only this time it is not only about soprano vocals or a melodic female voice, it is about both of them! CORONATUS thought that having two different vocalists would be kind of different and nice, although my humble opinion is that they do not fit together, at least in this band. One more thing is that the band should try to develop a more personal sound since there are different kinds of riffs scattered here and there. For example Mein Herz is a classic symphonic Power Metal track a la NIGHTWISH, while Cast My Spell starts with a totally Thrash Metal riff. The sound may be nice and solid, but as I have said many times in the past a good production can't save the day for a not so good album.

In the limited edition of Porta Obscura you also get two bonus tracks, a new Latin version of Flos Obscura, which is originally from their debut album, and a song from the band's early days which is actually the first song of CORONATUS and features male vocals. Let me add that they sounded way better back then.