Meridian - The Seventh Sun (2002)

Meridian was a short lived ('99-'02) melodic black metal band hailing from Geneva, Switzerland who back in 2002 released an overlooked gem titled, 'The Seventh Sun.' Playing at both dashing fast and mid-paced melodious speeds, Meridian also included odd dark electronic/EBM like intros/interludes in their music that gave the album a very distinctive feeling as well as Emperor-ish atmospheric synths.

While its true that an amalgamation of melodic black metal and dark electronics has been done before and is actually quite accepted these days, as far as I recall it wasn't so common back in 2002. Possibly influenced by the legendary Thorns and their monumental debut from a year earlier, Meridian took some characteristics of that release and created a wholly original experience on this album.

Now I should point out that I have no interest in EBM or really any electronic music these days. Years ago I bought a bunch of big names in those scenes and while it captured my interest and scored me a date with a hot chick back then in the end it was about as memorable as them turds I flushed down the toilet this morning. However somehow the way Meridian perfectly places the dancey EBM parts and aggressive electronic beats amongst their raging black metal attack absolutely appeals to me and has done so for many years now.

The vocals are performed by a guy named Paris as well by Jack D. Ripper of Morgul fame, though the booklet doesn't clearly indicate who sings what, but his/their diverse raspy screamed voices, which also occasional have some effects placed on them work entirely to well with the music of Meridian. Drakon's faultless and catchy guitar work is full of character and you'll find many agreeable moments, possibly followed by the banging of your head too. M.T. Random's drum work is intense fast paced powerful technical drumming and Arwan's synth work is damn cool, but I think I already made that obvious. Plus the album is produced near perfectly, which was a good idea since this sort of music would have sounded odd with an underground production.

As I already said, many bands these days have explored the idea of mixing electronics with black metal, but never did a band pull if off so extraordinarily as Meridian did on, ‘The Seventh Sun.’ It's just a shame they did this one and only album and called it a career.