The last time I reviewed an album from Lamp Of Murmuur, Heir Of Ecliptical Romanticism, I remarked that that their eschewing of most social media and online presences was not something to sneer at, much more a sign that they produced the music that they wanted to produce and if anyone wanted to come along for the ride, well that was their decision. No passive passengers so to speak. They then kind of went on to prove that with their last album Submission And Slavery which basically dropped a whole ladle and a half of goth and post-punk into the sound.

Now for me it didn’t gel at all so I pretty much let them wander off and do what they do in their own time and waited to see what would come next. Industrial? Ambient noise? …Folk jigs? Who could guess.

So here comes Saturnian Bloodstorm and even the cover is a step again into new territory; it has full blooded colour.

So open up the music….’ Conqueror Beyond The Freezing Fog’. An immediate clatter of guitars and storming drums and we’re back in shadow and blood black metal territory. Cold, tempestuous with a little of old Immortal, a twist of Emperor and then those weird little touches that threaded through the debut album. There’s a snarling rhythm to this, a deep and dark fluidity and that whisper of deep guitar notes that still nod to an almost goth sound. Superb.

‘Hymns Of Death, Rays Of Might’ is a darker, more mid paced and measured affair but more deliberate and malevolent with neat keyboard touches. ‘Seal Of The Dominator’ continues in this vein, but with an eerie quiet passage which kind of is something like Rush if they’d been possessed…

‘Descending From The Aurora’ brings in some full on dark ambient keyboards, the rustle of chains maybe, before ‘In Communion With The Wintermoon’ slides back into that Immortal ‘At The Heart Of Winter’ vibe. The icy melody over the top of the pulsing riff, the snarling vocals seemingly echoing through a blizzard. It may well be the best song Immortal never wrote… fading with some classic early 90s dungeon synth sounds

And finally we get the title track. Another beast of a blizzard evoking sound; stop-start riffing, great vocals snarling in the swirl and a guitar spun melody that races into the heart of the maelstrom as keyboards rise and the whole thing simple rises higher and higher. A pretty magnificent closer.

It’s another idiosyncratic step for M’s internally focussed expressions of art. The debut was a strange, raw but deceptively layered statement of intent, the second almost like something that simply had to be expressed, a song to the outside influences of the Lamp. And this? This for me is winter gripped, storm driven black metal with such an assured hand on the tiller as it sails into the darkness. Oh yes, there is a thick thread of earlier Immortal here, no doubt, but also far more than enough of The Lamp Of Murmuur and their great talent at subtly shifting tempo and atmosphere mid song without jarring, their knowing use of keyboards simply as and when required rather than drenching everything.

I love this. It’s just again great music.

And who knows what the next chapter will be like… Whatever I will listen without prejudice.

(8.5/10 Gizmo)

https://lampofmurmuur.bandcamp.com/album/saturnian-bloodstorm