Secretum Secretorum

Some BM band names look so obvious that the wonder about them is that they were never used before - in the case of Ancient Moon, before 2015 when that band released its debut recording "Vvltvre". At present not much is known about this band apart from it being a group of musicians from Belgium, France and Switzerland. Similar can be said for the other band sharing space on "Secretum Secretorum": Prosternatur is a European-based project whose members seem to prefer the black veil of anonymity, quite appropriate in my view for a band delving into the occult for inspiration. Being obscure can be a double-edged sword though: while being underground adds to an occult-inspired BM band's mystique, it sure doesn't help spread the band's music very widely. For both bands, a split release can make their music a bit more accessible to underground BM fans while it preserves a distance from the wrong kind of popularity for both acts while they may still be fairly new.

Ancient Moon's only contribution to the split is a long, hypnotic BM ambient piece, "Hekas Hekas Este Bebeloi!", of relentlessly punishing blast-beat percussion, dry grim vocals verging on the edge of mania, a raw edge and near-frozen cold atmosphere. As the song progresses, it develops a rich layered soundscape of rasping phantom chant, a stern choir, a mix of rhythms and fast, slow and medium-paced sections with tremolo guitar melodies, and brief passages of cavernous black ambience. In spite of its length, the track is single-minded and rarely deviates from its path, even though towards the end the music dissipates into its various instrumental or tonal elements.

Prosternatur starts its side just as punishingly and with as much raw sound and anger as Ancient Moon; and like Ancient Moon too, the band's music features various grim BM voices and cold atmosphere. The band's style weaves from tremolo guitar riffing, pounding percussion and melody to cold uneasy ambience and back, all presided over by bone-chilling vocal rasps and screams. The songs can be very powerful though in the way they all jump from powerful pummelling BM riffing and blast-beats to dark occult atmosphere, they don't appear to be very different from one another. Of the three tracks on offer, the middle song "Zi Dingir Isatum Kanpa!" is the most melodic and accessible, with a controlled and sustained anger, grinding tremolo guitar corrosion, keening background choir and ritual thumping percussion. I must confess I didn't find "Usella Mituti" much to my liking due to some of the vocals which bordered on the cartoonish and silly.

For most BM listeners, Prosternatur's side of the split will be more interesting if only because the band manages to fit in three songs that showcase more of what it can do where Ancient Moon opts for a long track that is initially monotonous and probably doesn't reflect what this band is capable of. At the same time, I think Ancient Moon might just have the edge over Prosternatur in having a more powerful and fuller sound, and in building up a rich sonic world while Prosternatur's sound is on the thin trashy side. Fans of ritual occult BM with a lot of atmosphere might try spinning this split and make up their own minds as to which band is better.