Estatic Fear
Somnium Obmutum

THE REVIEW

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.