Formicarius were first embraced by the Black metal world when they released their initial majestic, dark, symphonic single, namely “lake of the dead”. Since then they have formulated and finalised a full length offering, “Black Mass Ritual”, which is due to be unleashed on the 21st July via Schwarzdorn Productions.
Lord Saunders et al open the proceedings with a grand, philharmonic intro, then kick into some very nice intricate fret work which is tied together with some heavy bass and battery, before pure evil, satanic vocals take over, and lead the listener down a path, which feels like its destination is straight into the bowels of hell itself.
The second track, “Overlord” starts with a beautiful piano prelude, before it gets an over layer of almost military esque drum beats, before the guitars step it up, and then the vocals kick straight back in with a power and presence even Lucifer would be proud of
The album continues in the same vain with tracks which have been labelled with titles such as “May the rats eat your eyes”, “under darkness” and my personal favourite “Master of Past and Present”, which starts the listener on a path of beauty and fauna, with elegant key work before the rest of the band decide to step in, and bring in a definitive technical black metal sound to the proceedings. “Master of Past and Present” ties the album off nicely with a black metal sound which some may describe as polished and ‘upbeat’, yet they still seem to keep the dirty undertone to the sound and atmosphere.
For a bands first offering, this is truly majestic, and Formicarius are definitely a band to keep an eye on, as judging from this offering, they already seem to have one foot in the door of metal prominence.
(8/10 Phil Pountney)
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