As things have changed over the last two years with everyone working remotely and collaborating with colleagues which are remotely located, why shouldn’t music do the same? While this sextet comprises of 5 Venezuelan members and a Finn, they are scatter across France, Portugal, Spain, and the United States, yet they produced an album that belies they’re not writing everything while in the same rehearsal space.

Thankfully, the horrible thin guitar sound on the intro to “Into the Depths I Ride” is meant to sound that way, as once the guitars actually come in properly the heaviness is much clearer and the quick-fire drumming helps add to the sound which is filled out nicely be the keyboard melodies.

For the first 10 seconds of “Cast in Gold”, I as expecting the song to be far more industrial sounding, but then the guitars and vocals come in and Hermán Riera certainly does not give it a machine-like monotonous tempo but rather a fast flurry of tom rolls and a pleasant groove to the double kick pattern.

Slowing things down, “Our Last Eclipse” has Emmy Reyes and Rex Chiesa intertwining melodic guitars with a steady rhythm for Antony Hämäläinen to chant over with a slightly gruff vocal cadence.

René González’s keyboards on “Cerements” give it an interesting psychedelic feel that seems at odd with Antony’s harsh vocals, but somehow it works, as does Miguel Herrera’s popping bass in the background.

“Jotnar Magick” builds gently into a heavy song with a very choppy guitar riff that matches the hammering of the drum, before it all settles for some guitar harmonies over angry sounding vocals and steady drumming, finally finishing up with a very mellow outro.

The vocals on “Library of Tears” have a raspy quality to them, but also change to slowly spoken while the music doesn’t really change pace even though it has a lighter tone at this point, the vocals then take on more of a hardcore chanted delivery as the song continues.

While there are sections of “Silent December” which are quite fast, the vocals manage to give the song a much slower feel as their cadence doesn’t always match that of the drums and guitars, also allowing for the lead break to be a rather bluesy affair.

Very quick drumming over a much slower guitar and keyboard harmony gives “Memories” a bit of a surreal feel that I guess goes well with its title.

Having a far more laid-back vibe to the music, the vocals on “The Black Rainbow” still are delivered with a bit of an acerbic edge, as the slow lead gently plays on throughout.

The final track “Peregrination” picks up the pace once more as the rapidly beaten drums give the lead a chance to be played quickly to add to the hasty feeling the song carries. The lengthy outro is a meandering affair of leads over the other instruments until it all fades out.

An enjoyable album that has been well written and very well executed.

(8/10  Marco Gaminara)

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