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Rating: A dark album. A (wonderfully) avant-garde album. An album that combines black metal with symphonic, progressive elements and traditional music - so much so that someone has spoken of "folk/black metal". Labels are as transient as ever: we can compare this CD to Arcturus' masterpiece, "La Masquerade Infernale". There, as in "Empiricism", we can talk about a black metal foundation, which, while consolidating the typical violence of the genre, adds ambient parts, chiaroscuro choirs, and some truly respectable riffing. Without losing imagination, without losing incisiveness.
One might say "it's already been done many times", and simplistically might think of Dimmu Borgir (as expected), but the comparison is reductive: there's something better here. This album does not suffer from the problem of many albums by the aforementioned band, which is, a "symphonism" (at times) so extreme that it becomes an end in itself (thus, losing impact: but this is a personal impression). The parts are always perfectly balanced, in a mix of chiaroscuros worthy of a true work of art. There's the artistic flair of Lars A. Nedland, who wonderfully handles synthesizers, organs, and piano. There's the sublime technique of Tyr, a former live musician of Emperor. There's (not least, and not only) the very distinctive singing of Vintersorg, which closely resembles that (for example) of the great Ulver. The overall style of the band, by the way, was "dictated" by former members of Arcturus, Immortal, Ulver, and many others.
It's a pleasure to listen to such an album, so meticulous in its details, simply perfect, full of both raging and dreamy parts at the same time. We can hear every instrument perfectly, each musician has their space, without overdoing it or overlapping with others. The "clean" choirs are surprising, reminiscent of legendary albums like "Anthems to welkin at dusk" by Emperor: here, they succeeded in capturing that idea, extending it, and inventing something new on it. All this while reconciling the dark side with the contemplative one, the growling with the clean, without exceeding in violence, without abusing virtuosity, and never tiring our (poor) ears...
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 The Genuine Pulse (04:51)
The gephyr, the sullen breath
Horizons of history re-erodent
The haven, where the stars are set
Constellations of manifestation
Glow, expanding through forever
I fall with the rain, rise with the ocean
(Rise, with, the o, cean!)
Drain to expire, the shrine of fertility
(Drain t'expire, the shrine of fertility!)
Burn as the flame, as strong as I came
Twine your existence, sense of serene
Thousand senses of virtual faction
Existential inputs production of mind
Instinctive, raised to find
As the salt in the sea, burns in me
Forever, the taste in your mouth is-aaah
Eternising the soul soaked estate
Solvable as fractional fragments
whoa, fractional fragments
Divine gracious divulgence
Pulse, rotation, the spine of creations
Wane as the circle of zero
As the salt in the sea, burns in me
Forever, the taste in your mouth is-aaah
Eternising the soul soaked estate
Solvable as fractional fragments
whoa, fractional fragments
The genuine pulse - the link of a thousand senses
The genuine pulse - entire celestial allegiance
The genuine pulse - dense induce of the indomitable
The genuine pulse - never to fail thus existence I sail
Through the elements of four
The gephyr, the sullen breath
Horizons of history re-erodent
The haven, where the stars are set
Constellations of manifestation
Gh-low, expanding through forever
Measure the circle of eternity
The treasure of ability
The Genuine Pulse
02 Gods of My World (04:26)
"The gods are great, I am the greatest"
Mother of earth, mother of all
Father of air, father of all
Brother in flames
Sister of seas
Gods of my world, behold...
Flame my desire
To grow and to breed
The wisdom I need
Gather in the storms asunder
Condone the cosmic hibernation
Steam of rivers, the hive of oceans
Praise the father's of all significance
The reckless burden of existence
I ace the rise of the furious
The amend forces
The amend course
Gods of my world, behold...
Pour rain on the fire
The fire that burns
The day of my birth
Gods of my world, behold...
Flame my desire
To grow and to breed
The wisdom I need
Gather in the storms asunder
Condone the cosmic hibernation
Steam of rivers, the hive of oceans
Recollection, my soul connection
The thrive of reflection, affection
Forever you'll be the tongue of mine
Through time and existence
By instincts divine
Forever you'll be the sight of mine
Through time and existence
By visions divine
03 The Black Canvas (05:18)
The very maxim of the universe
Portrayed by the greatness the stars rehearse
Premeditated by nature's sense
A modest exuberance so intense
That every mind has failed to grase it
Forged by time on the last of eternity
Complex constructions - a stellar fraternity
Spread out on a canvas of deepest black
The white glowing softness a fierce attack
On every space still to be filled by matter
A pursuance of that very first creation
Expansion and a constant alteration
The fringes of the canvas always stir
The boundary is bathing in a blur
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By TheSilentMan
Talking about black metal is really limiting for this album which certainly has those typical black atmospheres, but is full of contaminations from other genres.
The band's performance is masterful, and the technical skills are, I would dare to say, enviable by many other groups in the scene.
