Lover here..
8- Prophets of War: Strange to be DT, and not so good, though I always enjoy the section that starts with "The only thing that I believe..."..
7- Forsaken: Nice song.. Good riff, good verses (the second is great, but the first one has its own thing -I LOVE how you can hear so clear all the five guys doing their thing-) and average chorus.. Short but great solo..
6- The Dark Eternal Night: I used to hate the MP vocals, but now I kind of got used to them (npi).. BUT dat instrumental just put this song among the very few with excellent instrumental parts.. In fact, those vocals used to keep me from this insane beautiful section.. Oh, and I was forgetting the riffs.. Glorious moment at the end of the song..
5- In the Presence of Enemies pt 1: Yeah, great song indeed.. Especially Prelude I must say, but vocal parts on Resurrection are good enough to makes me prefer this one over TDEN..
4- Repentance: I don't like very much the beginning of the song, but after the MP line it gets more and more awesome.. I got to mention THAT epic guitar solo..
It's among JP's best.. Then, with Restitution, the song enters in a unique section in DT history, which, despite its nature, it never bores me (I even like how the final voices homogenizes with the background music)..
3- Constant Motion:
the opening riff sounds a bit weak with the guitar just by itself. Once the song gets going, no problem at all.
I think that the guitar being by itself at the beginning is necessary to give that impact when the rest of the band kicks off.. Apart from that, I got nothing to say that it hasn't been already said about this short little masterpiece.. I'll just emphasize the force and awesomeness of the part at 4:04.. That drumming..
(yep, "pun" INTENDED this time)
2- In the Presence of Enemies pt 2: Heretic is perfect.. The darkness, the brilliance, the unpredictable on it.. I listen it today and it still keeps its freshness.. The Slaughter... a "minimalist" (minimalist for DT) metal moment that at that point it fits the structure of the song perfectly, and it has one of DT's more deep, strong and astonishing section.. "Through a veil of madness..." it's what it says.. Then, a
DT SC common instrumental with The Reckoning, having really great moments.. And finally, Salvation, a nice ending to a truely masterpiece.. Those freaking melodies!..
1- The Ministry of Lost Souls: It seems that I'm the only one to classify TMoLS as the best song on this album (edit: I was).. This is definitely a grower, but it never was a bad song for me.. I used to like it, now I love it.. The melodies, the lyrics, all of it is just outstanding and, against this:
the instrumental section is too out of place.
I think is not.. Or, to put it in another -and paradoxically- way, I think is not out of place because it is.. It fits completely to the song for the unexpected and sudden it is.. Besides that, the entire section it's great, especially the final unison (glorious moment), but I love the whole song, since the very beginning.. Aside the intro, starting with the JP's arpeggio at 0:51, and then the verses, choruses and the memorable outro... It just transports me to another place I can't describe with mere words..
A great album, underrated from my point of view.. I think it's the last album in which DT has experiment.. I want some of that spirit on the next album, I'm pretty sure they still can..
And another thing: they're eight songs, not seven..