Chapter XI

At the heart of The Wailing Ossuary lies an ancient ritual summoning pentacle surrounded by laughing skulls. They challenge brave metalheads to lead five mighty musicians in an epic performance to try to conjure a monster of metal.

This week we’re reaching a couple of decades back for our Chorus (whilst somehow still remaining in this millennium, what year is it?). Hawkeyed readers might also notice a not-so-subtle avian theme running through the Chapter…

The Chorus

Pan-European melodic metal band Beautiful Sin were brilliant but unfortunately seem to have poured all of their creative energies into producing only one album. We think it was worth it, however, because their 2006 release The Unexpected is an incredible record. The orchestral ascension into the longing melody on This Is Not The Original Dream is surrounded by a wall of distortion. Take Me Home feels like you’re being pulled along through darkly lit streets while overhead the powerful vocals continue to increase in urgency. Pechvogel is one of the heaviest tracks on the album where a crunching riff meets darkly comedic lyrics. The track’s title is a German expression which loosely equates to a human jinx and the lyrics are a clever play on words that polyglots will especially enjoy.

The Champion - IV

If you equate power with speed then Mike Mangini might just be the ideal choice for position IV on your pentacle. The former Dream Theatre time-keeper previously set five world records for being the world’s fastest drummer, and those familiar with the band recognise the impact of his style on the musical direction of the band when he succeeded Mike Portnoy in 2010. Prior to joining the prog-metal icons, Mike (M) had drummed with the likes of Annihilator, Extreme and Steve Vai to name just a few. His alarmingly acute ability on the drums is perhaps more understandable once you know he began hitting the skins as early as two and half years old. A genuine prodigy. We’d be interested to know whether he can drum faster than a hummingbird can beat its wings.

The Curse

The sheer speed of your ritual musical offering has brought Caim springing up into your summoning circle. A generous goetic demon, the avian prince of Hell eagerly shares his portents of the future which should help you to plan your tour schedule more thoroughly. Caim's renowned skill in advocacy will also greatly benefit you during those pesky industry contractual negotiations. As an added bonus you can now understand the languages of birds, cattle and dogs which means you get feedback of a significantly higher calibre than that which you get on Twitter (no, nobody will ever call it ‘X’).