Tracks

1. Scar Trek/Parasite God
2. Flux/Mental Maelstrom
3. Spirit In A Vacuum
4. Monolith
5. You Put A Hex On Me
6. Everyone Leaves
7. Marshland
8. Antimental
9. Smell The Witch
   Bonus Tracks:
10. Paranoid God Part 1 (The Iconoclast Mix)
11. Marshland (The Excursion Mix)
12. Monolithic dub
13. You Put a Hex on Me (Tarmured Remix)

A Review from musictap.net/
Mortiis has quite a varied career thus far. And all the odds are that he isn't about to stop now. From bass playing duties with the black metal band Emperor to his various side projects and his original releases, Mortiis has shown quite a knack for evolution. If you have heard his dark medieval dungeon music on The Stargate and Fodt til a Herske, then you would recognize, upon hearing "The Smell of Rain, the superior forward movement. Mortiis has produced a grand scale album that reverberates with programmed drumbeats and a extraordinary set of compositions that would make many artists immediately jealous upon hearing. Filled with thoughts of loss, despair, and perpetual disintegration of social norms while accepting the abnormal as the normal, this collection of tunes faces the epitome of bleakness at its lowest levels and crawls forward to voice its unrest. A document so metaphorically rich and musically attractive so as to draw its listeners into the sphere of its influence and release the pain contained therein.

The use of its electronic components to create the soundsphere that encapsulates this work is spacious. The music, while somewhat familiar and often attributed to the likes of Enigma and other influences, is incredibly original in its production. It produces spellbound melodies that capture you at first listen. The steady bass lines on "Scar Trek/Parasite God" is absorbing and entrancing. Couple that with the spoken lyrics that make up the song sealed with the intonation that "...I want to be your parasite god so I can show you what you really are..."; a condemnation against man and his indifference. Now that's powerful.

The other songs on this CD are compelling and say much artistically. It's danceable, listenable, discernable and just flat out enjoyable. Mortiis' shows must be tour de force and absolute in their presentation. I've yet to see one but welcome the chance to immerse myself in just such a showcase. Every song rocks but there are standouts. The soft and mournful melodies of "Everyone Leaves" is melancholy, giving voice to destroyed hope brought on by impossible changes..."Everyone leaves in the end, everything dies in the end." until you get to ..."It doesn't matter...". The isolation of "Marshland" with its declaration, "...The only way to find myself is to descend deeper still..." and "I'm stuck and cold in marshland..."

Mortiis has rounded a corner and created a strong musical statement that plants him well into a new style that speaks of and promises better things to come. I look forward to his next CD.

An awesome and original recording from a mysterious persona with even more strange concepts and looks. The aura surrounding Mortiis is the stuff of legends and helps to market each release in his body of work. I highly recommend this CD even if you were turned off by his earlier works. It is an album of rock songs that encourage many modes of listening. Whether that be dancing, and you can dance to this industrial , dance oriented material, whether you enjoy introspection (this album is stuffed to the gills with introspection), this becomes a CD to add to your collection.

A Review from Metal Maniacs
Oh, that crazy old troll Mortiis, always throwing us for a loop. By the time you read this, you’ll probably have heard the word on the street that Mortiis’ seventh and latest long-player The Smell of Rain, is an unabashed slab of dance floor-ready gothotronica. A big surprise? Hell yeah. An actually enjoyable one? An even-louder hell yeah. I can almost see the reader shudder now… Before you go and get your black T-shirt in a bind, let’s get this much straight: You can do only so many spins on the Conan soundtracks without succumbing to self-parody. Burzum realized this and and called it quits after Hlidskjalf, and the elfin one similarly recognizes this too, wisely decided not to rehash Fodt til a Herske Part Seven but, rather, moving arguably greener, albeit different pastures. After all, two years previous, The Stargate was his most vocal-oriented record, with the lion’s share of those duties handled by journeywoman Sarah Jezebel Deva, so it was a logical next-sep for Mortiis to move into a spotlight other that “narration”. The context should provide ample justification for The Smell Of Rain’s existence, but let’s delve deeper, shall we? The first and most overt component of Mortiis’ new approach is his vocal style: a thin and frail wheeze, yet impassioned and icy enough to draw favorable comparisons to peter Murphy (Bauhaus and solo). Perhaps sensing that his vocals are in the development stage, he fortunately never mixes them too up front or on top of the proceedings. And those proceedings? Not all that removed from Electric Hellfire Club, Wumpscut, FunkerVogt, and other artists orbiting around the Metropolis Record stable, the album’s songs revolve around an axis of pulsing midtempo sequencer beats, wafting keyboard washes, snatches of simple electric guitar, and various other electronic accents. What truly sets The The Smell Of Rain apart from the aforementioned groups-and, more so, where Mortiis’ past melds with his present- Is its exacting deliberate layering of symphonic synths, rendering near-ballads Like “Everyone Leaves” and “Monolith” all the more haunting and climactic by song’s end And god-damn if Mortiis doesn’t know how to pen an anthem, most satisfying among the bunch being “Smell the Witch” , “Parasite God”, and “You Put A Hex On Me” (his take on Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “I Put A Spell On You”?), All three cuts guaranteed to incite massive lawnmower-dance action at any gothic/industrial club night. Hardly revelatory, yeah, but you can’t deny that Mortiis possesses the charisma and élan to pull off derivation this admirably. If you’re one of those types who only listens to metal, then steer the fuck clear of The Smell Of Rain. However, if you’re one of those increasingly rare individuals who (gulp) enjoys music outside the metal realm, then by all means give it a spin, try it on for size- you might like the fit. Granted, the album doesn’t come recommended solely because it’s different than Mortiis’ previous work- again, it’s pretty much interchangeable with most of the Metropolis catalog- but it is a bold, new chapter in the man’s always-unfolding saga. And no, you can’t have my copy. Nathan T. Birk

A Review from Kerrang
Generously-nosed Norwegian dips a cloven hoof into the electro-pop world with dazzling results.

A Review Good Times
Every incarnation of music we have experienced courtesy of this performer could well present a solid argument that complete solitude makes for genuine art, and Mortiis strikes me as just beginning his endless journey to bring us among the darkest, most avant-garde forms of expression the industry could hope to become a part of. The former Emporer guitarist has spent endless amounts of creative effort constructing his personal universe inside which entire worlds are discovered silently awaiting the listener, while perfecting the tapestry through which his tales are told. On The Stargate, Mortiis clearly appears to be coming into his own as new doors are opened into the limitless depths of the human imagination, resulting in a milestone of his evolution as a musician that reinforces his credibility as an artist. The album displays a wider range of Mortiis’ talents as a keyboardist his nightly excursions into darkened paganism are accompanied by an increased plethora of overlapping keyboards, additional string instruments, and a vocalist with decidedly inarguable capabilities of carrying the forgotten world beneath to the furthest reaches of the cosmos with her beautiful, profoundly hypnotic voice. The story unfolding on The Stargate is one of the self-discovery of of an apprentice of a practitioner of the dark arts whose journey into that self-discovery occurs through an ancient fable bestowed upon him. The fullness established by past Mortiis releases; Crypt Of The Wizard immediately comes to mind; is compounded upon by the elements added to the traditional keyboard arrangements mentioned earlier, and the vast atmosphere evoked by the penned imagery within. - Dave Wolf