The album we have in our hands contains the soundtrack of the upcoming videogame "DUAT: Beyond Light & Shadow" (which is also the album title), a metroidvaina game centred around ancient Egyptian mythology.
The thing that immediately catched our attention is how well the real intstruments, the synths, the vocals, and the orchestra fit together, without clashing, without any element sounding out of place.
The 18 tracks are generally short, mostly under 3 minutes, which make the album flow well and sound fresh all through the tracklist. Musically, most tracks lean towards a very mysterious vibe, which sometimes can evolve into epic orchestral crescendos, with very intense and powerful moments such as in "Blood Eater" and "Corruptor". Other tracks prefer a softer approach, building up the tension slowly through the sapient choice of notes and atmosphere, for example in "Unreachable".
There is a tasteful use of middle-eastern sounding scales nd melodies, that contribute to drag our imagination towards the scenario of the game but without resulting exaggerately stereotyped.
All the tracks are instrumental except for the closing one, "I'm part of you", which presents an enchanting woman's voice singing beautiful lyrics, apparently inspired by the Book of the Dead.
This album definitely makes me want to try the game. If you're not a gamer, I still think you should give it a listen and let yourself be transported to its magical world.