Imperium Mortalia

Avant-garde subgenres of metal are quite hit-or-miss to me, but in this case, it was more than a hit. I adore veracity and techniques when they're exposed in all genres of metal and their pseudo-variants. But what I try to avoid is black metal; it's not my favorite genre. Besides my general dislike, some bands of this genre sound good, like Sarcófago, early Sepultura, and the majority of classic 80's black metal (rarely some 00s/10s/20s black metal). But the fourth wave of black metal begins when the dominance of one-man bands rises upon experiments and tons of elements that are unusual for its original material.

The vocals splattered over this release are very similar to the legendary melo-black/death Kanonenfieber: harsh, deep, loud, melodic, and melancholic. The majority of the sound is influenced by Kanonenfieber at its formula, which makes this a restpoint for fans of Kanonenfieber and other modern black metal bands. Starting with the first track, which has a killer solo with sixteenth/eighth note triplets along with some dotted notes, with death metal-esque blast beats using the ride, especially the blasts for "Les Allumettières". Throughout the composition, the soul comes from the chainsaw guitar tone and programmed drums, along with some custom time signatures and progressive elements, as well as some symphonic chords on the track "One Path, Many Voices" after the ambient intro.

Back to normal instrumentation, the guitar is loud as fuck, while the bass vanishes through time, and the drums, even programmed, the cymbals seem to be silent in some VERY SPECIFIC sections. Those two negative aspects about the lack of bass and the drums are what make me rip 4% of the album rating. Even with those aspects, this full-length turns into a polymorph of magic, turning into the black metal's cream of the crop.