Well, I was glad that this turned up with some extensive liner notes as it is a baffling enough listen in its own right before even getting to the cast list involved. In Lingua Mortua are a collective essentially put together for 2 albums by Lars Fredrik Frøislie of Ásmegin who themselves released 2 albums of folk metal between 2003 and 2008. Now I remember them but never really liked what I heard and indeed reviewed but this is completely different kettle of conundrums and once you pour from the spout all manner of things come tumbling out. Following on from debut ‘Bellowing Sea – Racked by Tempest’ in 2003 Lars gathered together other guitarists from Ásmegin and put a cast list together of somewhere in the region of 13 other musicians. This “exhibition of rejects” set about making an album combining facets of prog and black metal and no doubt confused the hell out of a lot of people who heard it on first issue. The songs themselves took quite a few years to put together and sat on the shelf for a while before finally being given a release by Termo Records in 2010. Interestingly we are told that Lars was at a low point working in a meat factory at the time with lots of co-workers having missing digits due to getting them mangled in the death machines. Lucky, he didn’t get any fellow guitarists a job and I am sure this came as a welcome escape from such an appalling, grinding routine. It’s also pretty obvious where title and lyrical inspiration came from on ‘Into The Mincer’

When I think of prog and BM naturally 1st thought is going to be with Fleurety who were innovators back in the early 90’s. In Linbua Morte prove a bit on the baffling side but nowhere near as manically schizoid as that particular group and although this has taken a lot of listens to penetrate it’s possibly a walk in the park compared to say an album like ‘Department Of Apocalyptic Affairs’. All sorts of instruments are utilised from a large array of analogue keyboards to woodwind and brass. Many of the vocals are handled by the rasping guttural voice of Shining Sweden’s Niklas Kvarforth and he seems to be a really good fit at adding a hostility to things although death-belch fans be prewarned, he is restrained on that front delivering just one noticeably. I always knew that he and Jorgen Munkby of Shining Norway were fully aware of each-others groups and had no problems with the use of name by each other but never realised that had in fact been involved on the same recording. Here they have and Munkby’s contribution is especially noticeable on instrumental number Catharsis where he also adds orchestral strains via Bass Clarinet as well as final track Cold Void Messiah warbling away along with no less that 5 different keyboards from Lars and even a mandolin from Endezzma, Vulture Lord guitarist Thomas Myrvold. There’s plenty of others too such as Thebon ex Keep Of Kalessin adding vocal darkness Skjelvenjde Av Angst and the late great Trondr Nefas on guitar.

It’s already past the point of no return here to mention each and every nuance on individual tracks but the album itself isn’t quite such the challenging listen that it could be, certainly not for lovers of the combined genres involved. The 11 tracks which contain 2 instrumentals are kept to digestible lengths as is the album as a whole. I kind of found that it is quite a mesmerising listen and certainly one to go with the flow on. It must have taken a hell of a lot of co-ordination to put together and this is noted in the flow of the material which is perfectly constructed. Repose have done a great and dedicated job giving it a new vinyl lease of life and it sounds excellent, the collaged art-from Trine and Kim being particularly striking too.

Although certainly not a forerunner as far as black prog is concerned In Lingua Mortua did perhaps kick-start the blackjazz genre which with Shining Norway has started becoming ever more popular. This and the eclectic cast-list should be more than enough to encourage those that missed it the first time around to indulge themselves here now. Those looking for a follow up are best directed towards Lars more recent progressive rock band Wobbler

(8/10 Pete Woods)

https://reposerecords.bandcamp.com/album/salon-des-refus-s

https://www.reposerecords.com/blogs/news/in-lingua-mortua-salon-des-refuses-lp