Reviews and other comments of Letum - The Entrance to Salvation CD.

An album that is underestimated and still unknown by many fans of introspective and/or dark atmospheric music, despite its quality and its refined execution. The name LETUM means 'death' and it is also the name of a god in the underworld. Musically speaking, what we have here is a project that will surely please fans of Raison d’ÊTRE or Ildfrost. This is dark-ambient but with added choral effects and neoclassical motifs which are very similar to the most atmospheric passages of Dead Can Dance or Ordo Equitum Solis. LETUM’s sound is refined, in the sense that is contains no noisy elements, not even the smallest, or any real experimentation. The focus is on ambiances and melodies. While LETUM’s influences are rather obvious on his first album, it will be listened too in loop mode and the fluidity of the arrangements will transcend the listener. Excellent.

Homepage: http://www.angle-rec.net

Mit LETUM schickt sich Roger Karmanik an, wiederum ein spitzes, messerscharfes, skandinavisches Wurfgeschoß auf die Menschheit loszulassen. Nicht Krach, sondern Klang heißt dieses Mal die Prämisse. Fans von alten Ildfrost, In Slaughter Natives brauchen gar nicht weiterlesen, sondern können SOFORT in den Plattenladen laufen. LETUM ist groß, verdammt groß, unumfaßbar für die Arme dieser Erde, egal wie lang diese auch sein mögen. Bombastische, sakrale Chöre treffen auf zarte, dennoch sehr eindringliche Geräusche, es scheint, die Last, die auf Deiner Brust liegt, senkt sich noch weiter herab. Nur ein paar Zentimeter, aber Dir fällt wirklich schwer, zu atmen und an Bewegen ist momentan gar nicht zu denken. Die Welt scheint still zu stehen, ist es ihre Schönheit, die Dich irritiert? Ist es die Stille, die Deine Trommelfelle platzen läßt? (VW)
13 Punkte

Homepage: http://www.legacy.de

LETUM
THE ENTRANCE TO SALVATION (50.55 min.)
COLD MEAT / EFA

Welch unwiderbringlichen Verlust der Split von Dead Can Dance für die Musik-Szene bedeutet, wird immer dann am deutlichsten, wenn Bands oder Projekte sich in ihrem eigenen künstlerischen Schaffen an der Arbeit Lisa Gerrard´s und Brendan Perry´s orientieren. Letum, ein Dark AmbientProjekt aus Schweden, lassen zumindest ansatzweise den Geist Dead Can Dance´s wieder auferstehen, indem sakrale Elemente mit zum Teil sich gewaltig auftürmenden Keyboardsequenzen neoklassischer Prägung miteinander verwoben werden. Dies erinnert, zumindest das musikalische Grundgerüst betreffend, vereinzelt an Alben wie "Within The Realm Of A Dying Sun", natürlich ohne die prägende Stimme einer Lisa Gerrard und ohne die musikalische Weltoffenheit, die Dead Can Dance in ihren Spätwerken offenbart haben. Darüber hinaus stehen Letum in der musikalischen Tradition ihres Labels und somit solcher Acts wie Raison d´Etre oder Coph Nia, zu denen eine gewisse musikalische Affinität durchaus vorhanden ist und Letum diese qualitativ sogar zu übertreffen vermögen. Unter diesen Vorzeichen ist der Albumtitel in der Tat der erste Schritt zur Erlösung.

9/10 - MK

Homepage: http://www.obliveon.menschkunst.info

More Swedish dark industrial ambient in the vein of Raison d'Etre or Ildfrost. Gloomy metallic rumblings, gregorian chants samples, synth soundscapes and nature sounds. The first track, A scent of a tear, is truly a little vademecum of the genre and could be easily mistaken for a Raison d'Etre composition. While CMI itself seems to admit Letum's little originality, this is a well done album and will certainly appeal those into the label's trademark sound.
Label Contact: Cold Meat Industry, Villa Eko, 595 41 Mjolby, Sweden
E-mail: order@coldmeat.se
Eugenio Maggi

Homepage: http://www.chaindlk.net

Funprox

Letum - The Entrance to Salvation style: cold meat ambient

Already after a few sounds you are not surprised that this album is released by the Swedish Cold Meat label. This is dark ambient at its best! Letum is a solo project of Mattias Henriksson, who worked at this debut album between 1998 and 2001. The bandname Letum means 'death' and it is also the name of a god in the underworld. The style of the music fits very well in the Cold Meat stable, reminding of Raison d'Etre or Desiderii Marginis. Another name that comes to my mind is Sephiroth, because Letum also uses many samples of nature sounds, collected during field trips. The album starts very dark and industrial, after which more quiet soundscapes with heavenly chorals follow. The album conveys religious or mystical feelings, just as Arcana often does. Although the atmosphere of the album is alternating cold and melancholic, the music is rather accessible. Long floating keyboard and choral parts are combined nicely with dark sounds and low frequencies, this album seems to have a natural flow. People who already have an impressive Swedish dark ambient collection will not be surprised too much by this album, but I think it is of a very high quality. I suggest listening to this album with your headphones on in a darkened room ( a cellar or a cloister would be even better)....
You can listen to some sounds of this album here.
Type: cd, 10 tracks, 50 min.
Label: Cold Meat
More info about the artist: Letum
This cd was reviewed by HD . Posted on Tuesday 20 November 2001

Homepage: http://www.funprox.com

Letum - The Entrance to Salvation (CMI.95)

Letum's debut CD reminded me why CMI is a label completely different than any other: Roger's ability to find fresh talent (meat)! Like a more darker (if that's possible) Raison D'Etre with similarities to Sephiroth. Mattias Henriksson is clearly talented in creating dark ambient atmospheres. A good chance to re-read those Lovecraft collections with this as the soundtrack. Rating 4/5.

Panos Maheras

When I read some opinions about Letum and even the CMI presentation of this new project, not many hopes were raised, as I expected, maybe wrongly, a new Dark Ambient project with not many novelties regarding a style of which the Swedish scene is one of the cradles. But fortunately this is quite the contrary, of course it is true that Letum music travels through the same immaterial spaces and have similar stylistic inclination as projects like Raison D'être, Sephiroth or Desiderii Marginis, to name but a few, but I think that they have their own autonomy and a particular way of making the style of their own. This can be witnessed when listening to this album meticulously. Letum's music is basically conceived with remarkable ethereal forms that dominates the most part of this album, each track is very well done, with a very nice sound selection, all of them assembled with talent each time. Of course the general sensation is of a dark nature with an inclination for the isolation and the reflective. One of the characteristics that can relate Letum with the above mentioned acts is of course their use of sampled sacral voices that are quite well mixed with atmospheres of quite personal style. These atmospheres are not extremely hollow in their conception, they get an ambience of a more meditative inclination of sadness that dominates the created forms without touching the deepest abyss but floating upon them. The soundscapes are the main factor inviting the listener to enter peaceful areas of calmness and reflective moods. But this peace named is sometimes more obvious and others reach a more disturbing nature. It is important to listen to the album on a high volume, then you realise that the sounds start bathing your mind slowly with its presence and you find yourselves forming part of the world created. The liturgical sampled voices appear in some tracks to contribute in the creation of a haven of peace while in other composition we can find more severe spaces as a consequence of a darker and arid construction. Some industrial touch in an inert conception are also perceptible in some light "percussive" elements with the aim of adorning the scenes more than giving a pulse to the compositions. Among the more intriguing forms we can listen to the opening, "A Scent Of A Tear", combined with a meticulous way of mixing the sound layers reaching the peak of perception with the apparition of the choral female voices. One of my favourite is the second, "Ictus", with an evident dark industrial atmosphere travelling with vast melodies that are the perfect example of the calmness and beauty proposed by Letum. "A Vague Light In The River" follows, blurred images enchanted by the coldness of sacred voices floating upon the sea of sorrow that the whole track is. One of the more representative titles of the Letum style is called "Solitude Of The Dead" which invites the listener to slow down into the inner self with the help of the cold voices and the quite and almost inappreciable sounds. Again the purest Letum essence is more than alive during "Adoration" a good representative of the general description given above but also enriched with the intervention of highly interesting melodies. Another important track is found under the name of "Sealed With No Belief" with its initial industrial touch transformed in efficient and plain ambient fused with the gentle melodies of beauty and tranquillity. A gift for the ears ready for the inner thinking and introspection is undoubtedly under the name of "The Inner Salvation", with its added percussive beats giving a more abyssal touch to a quite calm melodic piece. The end of the journey is finished within the waters of "The Final Process", we can travel over this element, an element associated with the huge serenity reached from the beginning of the album. After having named most of the tracks included we can affirm that this is a very recommended work, which must be listened with all senses and a big attention, but I am pretty sure that Letum will be giving even better surprises to lovers of this musical genre, even knowing their sometimes obvious influences this is a disc I like a lot. Let's wait for future releases.
F. Paco González.

Homepage: http://www.arrakis.es/~sdczine

A lot of people will love Letum. They will say that, finally, Cold Meat Industry releases a band that sounds like a Cold Meat band. I've always wondered how a Cold Meat band should sound. I remember back in 87-88 when I was hearing the early Cold Meat records there was diversity in sound and approach. You had bands like Brighter Death Now (Bomb the Day Nursery), In Slaughter Natives, and Memorandum, all with a unique approach to music.

Sometimes I get the feeling, when I'm reading reviews, that everything released by Cold Meat Industry sounds like a mix between Tangerine Dream and Dead Can Dance.

Well, it isn’t so and I hope it never will be!

Back to Letum. They actually do sound a little bit like a mix between the above mentioned bands, or closer to home, Raison d'être a couple of years ago. The entrance to salvation is a mix of church-inspired organs, low frequency rumbling, choirs and nature sounds. It has been done before but they do it rather well and if you think Raison d'être has succumbed to noise this is definitely one for you. To sum it up Letum is quite a pleasure to listen to but hardly original.

JONAS KELLAGHER - 25 June 2001

Homepage: http://www.fluxeuropa.com

Three years of work and a fan named Roger Karmanik – that´s all you need to get a deal at Cold Meat Industry. Well, you should have such warm hands like Mattias Henriksson and the capability, to melt reality with technology.
Of the results of Mattias' frequently trips with his recorder into the nature milled through his technical equipment has he created an opus that´s not only enthusing fasn of Raison d´Être-Fans. Letums trip through warm ambient spheres, enriched with sounds of nature, e.g. rushing of a runnel or just pure blowing of wind has Mattias mixed to an unitary ensemble with longingly overtone. "Letum" is recommended to be listened outside at night, but it also brings the freedom of nature into your little chamber – just close your eyes.
8 Points
Thomas Sonder

Homepage: http://www.orkus-online.de

The Entrance to Salvation is dark ambient electronica in the tradition of Raison d'Etre, Sephiroth and Coph Nia. These creations are slow-rolling thunderheads of sound echoing across antique landscapes. Like coming across an inviting, lit oasis of marble-built ruins gentle voices of medieval chant, a gothic chorus, periodically arise on this dark and brooding work. (4.5)

Homepage: http://columns.ink19.com/outsight

Recycle your ears

Letum is a newcomer in the Cold Meat Industry family but, with this first album, this act about which I don't know anything shows he fits very well in this label. Cold atmospheres, choir samples, windy soundscapes, bleak sounds, Letum is, behind his plain looking digipack, an act that will remind you at once of why you like so much CMI.

The sound on "The entrance to salvation" goes straight in the folder in which are already Raison d'Etre or Desiderii Marginis, along with some Ildfrost material. The tracks are very gentle and accessible, made of long tones that could be ghosts' voices, cristalline chimes, and samples that range from ambient elements that could be taken from movies, to ethereal choirs, footsteps and grinding doors (for example on "Sealed with no belief", or the water sounds on "The final process"). This is introspect and calm music that carries a strong religious feeling.

Sad and melancholic, Letum's hymns (that word seems more accurate that "tracks" here) flows gently, with more ease than Raison d'Etre, but without much evolution inside each piece. The album develops ten themes, around which some variations are played, but there is not in this CD the lyrical progression that can be found in Raison d'Etre, or the strange, deep elements of Desiderii Marginis. On the other hands, Letum's sounds are nice and well used. Not as synthetic as Arcana's (or let say, not pretending as much to be accoustic), their texture is quite nice. And, all in all, without bringing anything really new to the genre, Letum proves to be more than decent perpetrator of this CMI-school of dark ambient, something like a frozen version of Lustmord, playing somewhere in an old desolate church.

However, there is really something that bothers me with this CD, and it is its recording quality. The album was mastered by Peter Andersson, of Raison d'Etre, but it still sounds really hissy and saturated on some parts. I have no idea how the original material from Letum sounded, but the mastering could and should have been way better than this. On some tracks, the sound gets really blurry and distorted, and not in a good way. That's really bad, since the music in itself is soft and flowing.

Anyways, "The entrance to salvation" is a good disc, something that will bring a lot of enjoyment to people who already know this specific genre (the calm side of Cold Meat Industry). Not extremely original, this might not be the best choice for people who are new to this sound, but it is still a deep and well thought album. With a bit more personal sounding material and a better production, Letum could become a very interesting act.

Nicolas, July 19th, 2001

Homepage: www.recycleyourears.com

Homepage: www.paniscusrevue.com

Homepage: www.digitalartifact.org

http://decibelsstorm.free.fr 

С самого раннего детства мне почему-то казалось, что Швеция - это такая сказочная страна, в которой живут сплошные короли и суперлюди. Все началось, наверное, с суперчеловека по фамилии Карлсон, который имел пропеллер на спине, не работал и жил в свое удовольствие, летая по городу и влетая в любую понравившуюся форточку. Потом были АВВА, победившие на конкурсе Евровидения. В спортивных новостях тех лет то и дело сообщали о победах шведских спортсменов в теннисе, пинг-понге, горных лыжах, хоккее... На улицах Москвы среди горбатых "Запорожцев" и уродливых "Москвичей" всё чаще стали появляться Volvo и SAAB. В общем, на юный мозг со всех сторон давил пиар о "шведском качестве", "шведском социализме", "шведских стандартах", "шведской семье"… Помнится даже, что маленький прозомбированный Brain's Strained какое-то время мечтал уехать жить в Швецию и таким образом стать натуральным шведом, о чем даже проинформировал родителей. В музыкальном же моём развитии тоже прощупывалась некая шведская модель: ABBA-> SECRET SERVICE-> EUROPE-> ENTOMBED-> TIAMAT-> COLD MEAT INDUSTRY. И вот дошел я до того, что обозреваю свежую пластинку новой шведской группы LETUM. К этому моменту, надо признаться, моё мнение о шведском качестве ничуть не изменилось, и к музыке, созданной в шведском королевстве, это относится в первую очередь. "The entrance to salvation", изданная на CMI, определенно отвечает всем самым высоким стандартам стиля dark ambient. О самой группе много не скажешь, но похоже, что это проект одного человека (естественно!) по имени-фамилии Mattias Henriksson. В общем-то ничего нового он не придумал, никакой музыкальной революции не совершил и не слишком-то продвинул dark ambient вперед. Он просто создал еще одну хорошую группу, входящую в знаменитое семейство Роджера Карманика - шефа Индустрии Холодного Мяса. Музыкально же LETUM вклинился в маленькую нишу где-то промежду своими коллегами RAISON D'ETRE и DESIDERII MARGINIS, и полагаю, занял там достойное место. Холодная, темная скандинавская атмосфера, пронизывающая пластинку; готические хоралы с сильным религиозным подтекстом; умиротворяющие спокойно-печальные soundscapes - вот что скрывается за железной дверью с крестом, изображенной на красивом диджипаке. Десять похожих друг на друга композиций, плавно перетекающих одна в другую и легко впадающих в ухо, отмастерил сам Peter Andersson/RAISON D'ETRE. Поэтому можете смело довериться названию диска, предлагающему "войти во спасение", и получить оное по крайней мере на 50 минут.
Brain's Strained

Tristezza e solitudine. Sono questi i due termini che più mi assediano la mente durante l’ascolto dell’album. Qualcosa di tragico lo permea in tutte le dieci tracce, qualcosa che richiama un dolore infinito, inconsolabile e allo stesso tempo nascosto nei meandri più profondi della mente.
L’album in sé fa effetto, incupisce e dimostra come il progetto Lẽtum sappia costruire un valido ambient di marca Cold Meat; ma allo stesso tempo l’incapacità di andare oltre, la scelta di fermarsi a bivaccare nelle terre che furono di Raison d’étre, lo condanna e lo rende normale.
“The Entrance To Salvation” è semplicemente un buon prodotto, qualcosa che si fa ascoltare ma non eccelle, qualcosa di cui non si ha bisogno e pertanto di cui si può anche fare a meno, qualcosa che sa fin troppo di C.M.I. per avere una sua personalità delineata.
“Ictus” e “A Vague Light In The River” ad esempio sono due songs sconsolate che trasformano la rabbia in un mutismo agghiacciante, in un senso di negativo che mai si vorrebbe provare, ma poi se si pensa e ci si chiede da dove vengano quei rumori che fanno star male, allora si scopre che Lẽtum per ora è semplicemente un buon palliativo; nulla di più.
Ascoltatevi “Sealed With No Belief”, pensate al male di vivere e scegliete, perché Lẽtum potrà entrarvi fin sotto la pelle oppure restare in superficie a scorrere su della carne già incisa da altri progetti.

Homepage: http://www.suburbiamagazine.net

LETUM "The Entrance to Salvation" (10T CD, CMI) : Encore un album de dark ambiant chez Cold Meat me direz-vous, et vous n'aurez pas totalement tort, il n'y a rien de transcendant sur The Entrance… qui en ferait un album exceptionnel, mais le résultat, même si il n'est pas très novateur reste quand même de très bonne qualité, avec un côté liturgique en plus. Un album très spirituel nous ouvrant les portes de la sérénité et du repos éternel.

Homepage: http://cynfeirdd.free.fr

Ancora oscurità apparsa sotto forma di musica, ancora un disco sfornato dalla gelida CMI. I Letum ci accompagnano in un viaggio attraverso dimensioni arcane e tenebrose, immersi in un limbo sospeso tra beatitudine ed eterna dannazione, un mondo che trasuda triste misticismo ed inquietudine. Su questo "The Entrance To Salvation" si stende però l'ombra di Peter Andersson e del suo progetto Raison d'être. Se poniamo infatti a confronto questo cd con "The Empty Hollow Unfolds" noteremo moltissime somiglianze, a partire proprio dalla scelta di unire rumori provenienti dagli oggetti più disparati (scricchiolii, urti, sfregamenti e quant'altro) ad un tappeto di tastiere dall'incedere oscuro, oppressivo ed ipnotico. Inutile dire che in questo modo i Letum non possono certamente sperare di raggiungere i vertici di eccellenza del loro maestro, ma è altrettanto fuor di dubbio l'onestà della loro proposta, perfettamente in linea con i canoni stilistici e qualitativi della loro etichetta. Per quanto possa essere ostico il genere in questione, i cui estimatori sono tanto esigui quanto agguerriti, questo disco merita sicuramente un ascolto, dati i numerosi spunti interessanti come l'utilizzo (a dire la verità piuttosto parco) di voci liriche sia maschili sia femminili per sottolineare i momenti più introspettivi e malinconici. Perfetta colonna sonora per film stile "Il Mistero Di Sleepy Hollow", "The Entrance To Salvation" pur mancando di assoluta originalità sa come incantare l'ascoltatore e trascinarlo con sé in una notte senza confini.

Gianluca Turricchia

Homepage: http://www.silentscreamzine.com

Homepage: http://www.gustsofdarkness.com
Direct link: http://www.gutsofdarkness.com/god/objet.php?objet=3649 

Letum - The Entrance to Salvation (2001)
Cold Meat Industry

Some other comments

Melancholy, yet epic atmospheric Dark Ambient from Sweden recorded between 1998 - 2000; import Digipak CD on Cold Meat Industry Sweden. Massively brilliant cinematic darkness that will leave you in hallucinogenic ecstacy! In the vein of best SPK (as in the classic ''Zammia Lehmani'' album), LUSTMORD, & Graeme Revell movie Soundtracks (''Dead Calm'', ''The Hand That Rocks the Cradle'', ''The Crow'', ''The Craft'', etc.)-- awesome dreaminess!

Homepage: http://www.blackmetal.com

Music in the SPK and Dead Can Dance school
• Every year, the label Cold Meat Industry has launched a debutant influenced by SPK and Dead Can Dance. This year, it's time for Letum to show us their tranquil soundscapes paired with gothic chorals and sounds from nature on "The Entrance to Salvation", out now. /Mikael Kahrle

Homepage: http://www.releasemagazine.net

Das Kultlabel COLD MEAT INDUSTRY präsentiert das phänomenalen Debütalbum der Dark Ambient Band LETUM.

Stilistisch in der Dead Can Dance Tradition stehend, kreieren LETUM auf ihrem Debütalbum sphärische Soundlandschaften und schaffen mittels düsterer Industrialsounds und dem Einsatz betörender Stimmen (gotische Choräle / Heavenly Voices) eine weltenrückte Stimmung. 'The Entrance To Salvation' ist ein Muss für alle Liebhaber dunkler Klänge. Tracklisting: A Scent Of A Tear, Ictus, A Vague Light In The River, Solitude Of The Dead, Adoration, Tallriksis, The Path Of Loneliness, Sealed With No Belief, The Inner Salvation, The Final Process

Homepage: http://www.efamedien.com