ABHOR: "Ab Luna Lucenti, Ab Noctua Protecti"

In all honesty, I know very few good black metal bands from Italy. I don't know why that is, as the close-by countries Spain and Portugal seem to offer something of interest almost monthly, and still my knowledge of Italian black metal is basically limited to just seeing Mortuary Drape live a few years ago. Anyhow, Abhor is here clearly to change that fact, and positively so. It didn't take more than just a fast glance at the cover art and so my interest was triggered – it looks fabulous! It reeks of mysteries, magic and all that is occult. Hazy, black and white picture of a cellar with golden frames and a purple logo can not derive from the 21^st century, or so I thought.

The label Moribund Records depicts the album as 'an otherworldly voyage into the mysterious unknown, a twilit sojourn through esoteric realms', and it couldn't be more fitting. They also use the tag 'occult rock' in relation to Ab Luna Lucenti, Ab Noctua Protecti, but I don't think there's any of The Devil's Blood here, not at all. This is mostly mid-paced black metal with vaguely evil and melancholic riffing. The atmosphere is dominated by an overall aura of mystery, and this is mostly accomplished by the keyboards that play a very important role on the album. There are piano melodies everywhere, and they can be multifaceted patterns or just dark, heavy, accented chord hits. If not piano, it is different kind of haunting synth sounds that give each track enough personality. There's nothing to complain about the guitar riffing either that varies just about enough, but it is ultimately the keyboard department that deserves the biggest acknowledgements.

The album embarks on its journey with the acoustic guitars of ”Golden Path” and concludes fourty minutes later with somewhat similar ”Aura Ingis Aqua Tellus”, a mellow track of acoustic strumming and harsh vocals, all this close to Carpathian Forest's best days in early nineties (Journey Through the Cold Moors of Svarttjern, to be exact). Between these pieces, there's a lot of quality material within the spectrum of ghastly, underground black metal with the haunting of Elysian Blaze. It isn't lo-fi, but somehow distant to a great effect. ”Echoes of Desperation and Hate” reaches almost nine minutes but I have never really noticed any stagnation in the album, it has always been a pleasure to listen to from the beginning until the very end.

Ab Luna Lucenti, Ab Noctua Protecti undoubtedly belongs to the highlight albums of the second half of 2011, at least so far. That is quite well done considering that I hadn't heard a word about the band beforehand although their history goes back to the nineties and the back-catalogue features four full-lengths preceding this new one. Definitely a recommendable effort that I might start digging even more as time passes by and I've managed to give it more time and proper (dark) listening settings.


4 / 5