Reviews:
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.
www.angle-rec.net

Orkus magazine
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
www.orkus-online.de

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
www.legacy.de

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

sekuencias de culto
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.

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

Outsight
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)

Funprox
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)....