It’s clear from the grandiose title and claims of this Italian band that this was not going to be an ordinary work. Developed over 15 years and lasting 74 minutes, there’s plenty of time for the promised “iconoclastic fury of black metal, the abyssal heaviness of funeral doom metal, the decadent dissonances of industrial music, the majestic grandeur of symphonic film scores, the coldness of ritual ambient (sic) and the eclectic spirit of progressive rock”.
Theatrical and bombastic and occasionally grotesque is the way I would sum this work up. The framework is Black Metal. The theatricality is of a Carach Angren / Anorexia Nervosa type. “Scoring a Liminal Phase” is born of creativity. Sounds of horror and darkness, reflected in the vocals and hovering music, alternate with funereal walls of creeping black metal. The keyboards give this work the feel of a soundtrack. Moods change like the weather. Evil whisperings and dark utterances about black tunnels are followed by the erupting symphonic black metal of “Per Speculum in Aenigmate”. Whistling keyboards mix with frenetic drumming and throaty roars from the vocalist. The world of Mystical Fullmoon is a strange and disturbing one. It’s all designed, I suspect, to mess with your brain or your preconceptions. Here’ it’s driving, invigorating, ghoulish and dramatic. “Per Speculum in Aenigmate” is like a grotesque carnival played to black metal. It somehow hangs together better than a later similar piece of exaggerated theatricality “Limbionica Mysteria”, on which creative excesses overtake integrality.
Each track has its own identity and mood. I very much liked “Opening the Shrine of Janus”. The Bulgarian National Radio Orchestra put in an appearance. The symphony strikes in and provides classical and sweeping melancholy. Indistinct sounds, not unlike squeaking doors can be heard as the track develops into what I can only depict as avant-garde black metal with influences from all sides. Ghastly horror, croaking vocals and potent black metal drums provide those influences. There’s also jazz, and that leads us neatly into the mystical “Daleth Journey (Visio in Yule)”. This is the dusky jazz of the night, accompanied by hissing whispers. The drum offers a soft beat. Specialising in indistinct sounds, it’s quite hippy, nightmarish and plays with the senses. The follow-on is “Progression ov Thee revelation: Nigredo in Mars (thee third trumpet)”. This slow and creepy, whispering death type of track with sinister guitar work has a dreamy aura about it. The equally snappily-titled “Prometheus Unbound (Diameter Spherae – Thau Circuli – Crux Orbis – Non Orbis Prosunt)” is “typically” symphonic black metal. It’s not surprising that it takes all sorts of turns. There’s an industrial horror. It’s like listening to steel on the anvil but yet there’s a woozy “I’m losing consciousness” fee. It speeds up. slows down , takes a sinister turn and lightens up. “May Wisdom Bless My Path” ends the adventure. Initially patient guitar work leads to a more epic symphony. The sound is big and expansive. Manic sounds transform into a fearsome, independently styled black metal. It swings from passage to passage, varying in style between the reflective, acoustic, dark, fast and violent. Dramatic orchestral music brings the album to a fitting end … barring a fairly pointless secret track that I suppose to be expected on this album of surprises.
Without doubt this is a big and ambitious opus. “Scoring a Liminal Phase” is creative but I wonder is it just too much. It’s loud, brash and moody but I didn’t feel inspired by all this chaos and felt ultimately that this was more of a creative and experimental exercise than any sort of coherent work.
(5 / 10 Andrew Doherty)
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