AMNIS NIHILI: "Christological Escalation"

The label Avantgarde Music has expanded from the territories of experimental black metal to various prog / doom fields lately, so seeing a harsh black metal attack like Amnis Nihili’s Christological Escalation being released through the label brings a smile on my face.

Not that we’re dealing with an uncompromising, straightforwardly Satanic underground black metal release, but Christologiical Escalation’s filthy sound does surprise me. These four rapid songs don’t have much bass behind them and this is the biggest reason behind the harsh nature of the EP. The guitars are piercing, dead cold, and so are the incredibly fast drums of which cymbals are a whiplash to the listener’s ears. Nothing to complain about the high-pitched vocal delivery either that goes somewhere in the lines of Neige of e.g. Peste Noire and Alcest fame.

Via the use of fast speeds on which discordant riffage appears, Amnis Nihili creates a trance-like, hypnotizing atmosphere that works to a great extent. Individual songs don’t much rise to attention from these 17 minutes, but as a whole, Christological Escalation sounds good and succeeds at what it’s doing: cold, harsh, fast black metal with ambient undertones. Sometimes the riffing reminds me of Deathspell Omega’s convulsion while at times it turns into a sea of tremolo-picked, harmonous and almost droney ambiance à la Altar of Plagues. An interesting release overall that might not deserve its place in my top 10 of the year, but does lure for replay.

3 / 5

CALDERA: "Mithra"

On their second full-length offering Mithra, French Caldera delivers rather intriguing, repetitive, murky doom metal that meets with the climaxes of post-metal progressions, and all this wholly instrumental. The album consists of two tracks that run for over 15 minutes a piece, creating a fitting total playing time for a style that could easily turn into boredom.

But luckily Mithra is far from anything tiresome, though it does require an acquired taste. If you can’t handle chorus-free music without constant twists, Mithra is a dead end. But for me, a lover of repetition - thanks to many hypnotizing black metal albums - and purely instrumental music - thanks to a bunch of great post-rock albums - this record is a great listen. Starting calmfully with ”Lithogenitvs”, the song soon after builds up to simple yet addictive distorted guitar lines with steady drum beats behind, and after a while I’m surprised the song already fades out. ”Sacrificivm” continues then, with a tad more discordance in the melody department, at times reminding me of the lunacy of Deathspell Omega, yet never being technically challenging or fast at all.

Mithra is, all in all, a mesmerizing album that might not be entirely original, but a very fine album that requires close attention; otherwise it could turn into worthless background noise. The production here is full sounding, all instruments well in the picture. Good running time with adventurous music and no annoying features whatsoever makes an album that doesn’t change my life but what will receive listens from me fairly frequently now. Mithra is a recommended piece for post-metal fans who enjoy slow tempos and doomy sound.

3.5 / 5