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Ancient, decadent, moody, ruthless, this elusive and uniquely styled album combines medieval sounds and folk passages with extreme metal.
The influences are too many to speak of a single genre, there's gothic, there's death, there's black, but especially doom. It’s absurd to label it with just one genre, as the aim is precisely to traverse multiple musical genres through lyrics of dismay and dark mood, in English, German, and Latin. The work is complex and barely, hardly inclined to pleasurable listening. What envelops us is cold stone, slender light, and unchanging anguish.
The ensemble consists of 4 musicians engaged in various metal projects, each showcasing their personal experiences in their own way. That’s why we encounter sounds of timpani, lutes, flutes, pianos, organs, alongside the more "traditional" metal instrumentation like guitars, bass, drums. The result is a symphonic metal that, however, constantly shifts through passages of solo flutes, keyboards, acoustic guitars, and relentless rides marked by black scream or an abyssal growl. Marion's ethereal voice occasionally appears, expanding the range of this sound fusion. There's neither peace nor time to get carried away with the riffs, because everything alternates, albeit slowly, with perpetual regularity.
The intro "Des Nachtens suss Gedone" immediately transports us into a medieval atmosphere through the crystal-clear notes of a lute. Not even 2 minutes in and the 32 minutes of "Somnium Obmutum" begin. Three quarters of the CD are entrusted to this endless track. It starts with easily assimilated solos accompanied by drums that fluctuate between doom and black. It feels like a song that ends slowly, but in reality, it's the slow start of an ending that seems never to come... And after a piano and mournful keyboard pause, a new song seemingly begins, absurdly everything seems "mounted backwards," as if there's hope for a new beginning, materializing at the eighth minute with a distinctly black metal passage. The whole process progresses, completely abandoning the initial motifs. Again, a passage of piano, flutes, and organ gradually makes us realize that we're not even a third into "Somnium Obmutum"!!! Space for acoustic guitars that provide relief after oppressive and lacerating riffs. The relief is cut short in the subsequent reprise for a few minutes. There’s no time to rest, again passages resembling folk and immediately following the black. Slowly moving through convulsive phases and seemingly apparent death, the song eventually ends.
"As autumn calls" is an interlude (over 4 minutes) of wind-swept keyboards and sweet flutes. They end, so to speak, the 18 and a half minutes of "Ode to solitude", which insists on the style of "Somnium obmutum". The sensations of isolation and tedium are extremely strong, the fierce voice is that of a wounded soul finding no comfort in anything. And again, the illusion that after 5 minutes the track ends. Instead, slowly, moving through nature’s atmospheres and desolate landscapes, a new beginning brings back previous sensations. It goes on like this, from moments of sharp riffs to acoustic arpeggios.
Of rare beauty, as well as of rare renown, these 4 tracks perhaps encapsulate one of the most heterogeneous compositions in metal. Of slow listening and assimilation, the skill of these musicians who managed to put so much into so little is undeniable.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Somnium Obmutum (32:15)
Aumquam orem dulcem obliviscor de ea somniare non cassavi.
Sed quod pulchrior et desiderandios illa somnia sunt ea major tristia mea cum expergiscor.
Tamen desiderio noctes illam dulces sed dolorosas, ut regno somnii amorem meum osculis teneris tegere et suun capillium aureum permulcere.
Conamen meae mentis spem tepirire interiret per scientia oprimeta.
Devoratus per somnium obmutitum, lugen plenus desiderio.
As the lorn nightingales' melodious pain, dies away through the dusk-impregnated air a sweet, forgiving silence, delivers me from daily despair.
Dreams of sweetest emotion touch my heart and smother my daily surpresses cries, while a vision of beauty, pure and dear inspires me with a glimpse of paradise.
Wandering like a vagabund, expelled from the joys of men. Barred from the pleasure of company I solitary roam the night.
How should I ever summon my courage, when the bitter gale of failure dominates my heart. How should I ever enjoy the glare of the morning, when with the fading of the shadows shelter departs.
As the moon kisses the sea and casts it's glitter on the water and majestically silence engulfes the lands, a dream woven of bitterness, joy and desire stealthfully embraces my solitary heart.
Horis lucis simplex
crescere, et somniator.
Repudiatur nam sensus
ab simplice redeor.
Through scies of charming beauty, up to the stars devine, my mind lifts up enchanted, casts of all earthly chains. Subdued by nights sensation, engulfed by sweet temptation I kiss the seals of slumber and let my spirit dream.
Doubtful thoughts pull back my heart. The flame of delight chases to burn.
For every smile shall wither, the hopeful laughter fade, the cup of joys illusions bashed from the craving lips. And as all hopes are shattered, the last of passions scattered, the gale of bitter failure is all that shall remain.
Cursed by my creator and the spark of existence, so unvoluntary bestowed. Come forth spirits of my solitary past, emotions of havok and destruction be unleashed.
I wonder if I ever could regain the virtues I have cast off long ago.
I wonder if my eyes will ever catch a token of the sympathy I still crave.
And all emotion of my former days dilute. For I shall learn how to live with the truth. Soon I shall strip off the boundaries of hope.
For a caring soul.
Der fluchtig Vergnugungen mude, der Tag voller qualvollem frust.
Wann mag der einst wohlvertraut friede, endlich wieder erfullen die Brust. Und als der guldnen Sterne Glanz verging und des
Morgens Rot am Himmel hing da ward des Nachtens Freud und Bluck zerstoben ein neuer jamervoller Tag erhoben.
Wohin verflogen der Stunden Zeit wohin des Nachts verhullnd Barmherzigkeit.
So flieht mein Sinn dem Bimmel bleich in Trubsinn schwer an Kummer reich.
04 Ode to Solitude (18:34)
Wandering restless through the hillside on a cold December day, my solitary journey guided only by the pilgrims high in the sky
Fog invades the lands blocking the last rays of the dying sun and a veil of mist and serenity gracefully covers the night
The shadowy trees of the forest, once imbued with beauty and life now twisted and eternally frozen by a shroud of snow and ice
As the glow of the dawning sun vanishes in the witherd sky my eyes wander up through the whispering winds and watch the glare of the stars dilute
Exposed to the frost of the icy winds my bittered soul still rejoys
As the howl of the wind enchants me more than the sweetest sounding human voice
Freed from mens insanity I feel my grief stricken heart still burn bracing my soul through night's loneliness I sence a glimpse of shelter return
Burdend with the insight of my loneliness I continue my journey through this night
Passed have the times when the glimmer of hope filled my heart with gentle delight
All the years that the currents of fortune have planted the seeds of my grief my eyes have been fooled by the masks of joy, my desperate hopes deceived
So let us now gather the harvest of the past solitary days
And bath our peace craving eyes in sin's magnificent grace
The night shall pass and a cold morning breeze shall obscure the traces of my pittyful existence
For not a stone shall mark the place where silence embraced me and guided my cheerful soul into the charm of everlasting solitude
Wandering restless through the hillside on a cold December day, my solitary journey guided only by the pilgrims high in the sky
Fog invades the lands blocking the last rays of the dying sun and a veil of mist and serenity gracefully covers the night
The shadowy trees of the forest, once imbued with beauty and life now twisted and eternally frozen by a shroud of snow and ice
As the glow of the dawning sun vanishes in the witherd sky my eyes wander up through the whispering winds and watch the glare of the stars dilute
Exposed to the frost of the icy winds my bittered soul still rejoys
As the howl of the wind enchants me more than the sweetest sounding human voice
Freed from mens insanity I feel my grief stricken heart still burn bracing my soul through night's loneliness I sence a glimpse of shelter return
Burdend with the insight of my loneliness I continue my journey through this night
Passed have the times when the glimmer of hope filled my heart with gentle delight
All the years that the currents of fortune have planted the seeds of my grief my eyes have been fooled by the masks of joy, my desperate hopes deceived
So let us now gather the harvest of the past solitary days
And bath our peace craving eyes in sin's magnificent grace
The night shall pass and a cold morning breeze shall obscure the traces of my pittyful existence
For not a stone shall mark the place where silence embraced me and guided my cheerful soul into the charm of everlasting solitude
Good bye
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