The result is a real confidence that courses through the album – and a tautness and cohesion beyond any they’ve had before. There’s also the feeling that they’re getting used to their self-imposed “compact” margins, relishing the challenge of creating the most they can within three or four minute blasts. As an opening salvo, ‘Magic Carpet’ followed by ‘Black Rainbow’ encapsulates this perfectly, condensing riff upon riff so that they twist and twine round each other as though writhing at the bottom of a snake pit. Short by Amplifier’s standards at eleven songs and 45 minutes, that doesn’t mean Mystoria is truncated – it’s just that they’ve focused their dexterities into brief bursts of genre-spinning sound.Read more at pirate-smile.de