The Forlorn Warrior

Solis in Antris is a new BM project based in Athens but its founders, Hildr Valkyrie and VII, boast of long CVs working in other underground metal genres. My first impression of the band from hearing its debut "The Forlorn Warrior" a couple of times is that Hildr Valkyrie and VII know their black metal very well, and well enough that they are confident in combining their raw melodic BM with more dramatic atmospheric, even bombastic elements. The album is a concept work meditating on an unusual life-death-rebirth cycle: a warrior is condemned by a curse to live and die continuously by the sword. The idea isn't as wacky as it sounds: for most of its history after independence from Ottoman Turkey in 1821, the band's home country Greece has suffered repeated war, invasion and occupation (not always in that order) from more powerful countries.

To be honest, I'm not fond of the epic instrumental droning soundtrack music that bookends the album and appears in the middle as well so I'll skip straight away to the first proper BM song "March to Rebirth" which starts as a thrashy raw BM song of scrappy crabby vocals, thudding percussion and whiny buzzy tremolo guitars, later transforming into a martial piece with clean vocal chant for a brief while. Plenty of energy and spitfire aggression abound here. The title track aspires to be something more majestic and sublime with a touch of foreboding and tragedy; the drumming has a hard hypnotic quality and the riffing and melodies suggest an eerie pagan ritual quality. Not a bad song but something within is continually struggling to break free and seems suffocated by the busy music.

"The Curse of Torment" would be much the same as previous tracks except for an ambient instrumental interlude of cold quiet marked by resonant percussion effects, wintry breath and sinister laughter. This long track mixes speeds (mostly fast), melodies and vocal styles into a complicated raw noisy thrash BM tapestry. "Havoc and Darkness, Blackness and Chaos" likewise moves into darker, more melodic and operatic territory with a mix of raw BM and slight synth orchestral background music.

This is a very competent and confident debut release with plenty of power and energy, even if the band doesn't offer much original either in the BM tracks or in the droning ambient instrumental sections. The black metal is straightforward in its raw quality and thrashy style with room for melody and riffs though these are not very individual. Still, Solis in Antris is ambitious enough in having created a concept album around an unusual and unenviable life cycle of birth, death and unwanted reincarnation, that the band deserves close attention for what the members might come up with for a follow-up. I am hoping the musicians might draw on Greek folklore and legends, and the folk music that goes with them, for inspiration - I am really not impressed by the bleary soundtrack droning that opens and closes the album.