Saturnian black magic eh? Well this duo apparently come from NW England not Saturn but they could hardly have described themselves as Mancunian black magic could they, that would have been silly. Apparently the pair comprising Malphas (guitars, drums and vocals) and Baal (bass) released an album back in April ‘Disintegration: Psalms of Veneration for the Nefarious Elite’ (a right old mouthful) but we get anything but as a convoluted introduction with this EP which only comprises of 17 minutes worth of music over its 4 tracks.
With occult music and retro sounds being very much in fashion at the moment Inconcessus Lux Lucis (let’s call the ILL from now on) have mixed this sound into a more blackened mainframe. It’s interesting and it works quite well for them as well as making what they do pretty unique. The guitar work on ‘Via Dolorosa’ twists and turns with a classic sound to it that would not be out of place in work by the likes of Solstice, Manilla Road and the like, there’s even a bit of Thin Lizzy to it too but just as it gets going with some sinister sounding echoing vocals it pretty much finishes. Taking this as a mere intro we move onto the flamenco dervish of ‘Crux’ as the band use the album title to Brave Murder Day effect. It jumps and jauntily pogos about with somewhat more gravid raspy vocals, they are still quite clean and fit the choppy changing rifferama quite well, there’s almost a folk laden flourish to the rhythm and melody here rather than one that’s black metal but it does head into more dynamic blasting along with some suitably \\\metal as/// guitar soloing. Theme wise the lyrics are very dark and deep talking of death, darkness and lycanthropical hate as we move onto Lupus in praise of the wolf. It’s got a bit more of a doom laden death ritualistic feel to it and musically this one is definitely grimmer although again there are some intriguing riffs meandering through things which goes into a section that could be straight out of a Devil’s Blood and all the bands that inspired them song.
It’s last part Corona that has impressed the most here although all the songs are definite growers. It’s a snappy one that has some good bass groove underlying things and stygian growls from the vocals but again it’s the guitar playing doing the unexpected that defines it with some very classic rock sounding hooks that could be from Skynyrd or Steppenwolf as much as anything contemporary and once everything gels it really means you have little choice but to get the air guitar out and join in.
So a short and sweet introduction, one that at first did confound a bit but one that grew with me over repeated forays. ILL certainly have talent and ideas and will be well worth keeping abreast of in the future
(7/10 Pete Woods)
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