Based on the theme of darkness and light, “the two voices” as the artist behind Iterum Nata calls it, this album crosses numerous genres, amongst them folk and neo-folk, black and doom metal and progressive rock.

Our senses are made to work from the outset with the intriguing “Overture Limitless Light”. Ghoulish with a mediaeval folk guitar and sinister voices, its quietness is disarming. “Gleaming Eternity” is more penetrating with its black metal riff. The vocals are off the wall. I’m reminded a little bit of the Polish band Asgaard. I’m no expert on sartorial matters but for me this is the musical equivalent of someone wearing a pin striped jacket, a Hawaiian shirt, and bright red trousers. The languid vocals are dissonant and somehow innocent-sounding, placing themselves in contrast with the numbing black metal rhythm. “Avant-garde” is the term used and that’s about right. “A Manifested Nightmare” starts with sombre guitar line. The piano cascades. The vocalist tells a melancholic tale, increasing in tension and anxiety and enhanced by symphonic sadness. It’s slow burn, but it’s very powerful. This has the disturbed and twisted feel that you get sometimes with Norwegian bands like Atrox. Iterum Nata by the way are from Finland so maybe comparison with Sentenced or bands of that ilk might be more appropriate.

“Ambrosia” has the deep and rich vocal of Charon’s Juha-Pekka Leppäluoto. Accompanying it is the sinister sound of a hymn from the keyboard, and a storm going off in the distance. “Ambrosia” is funereal and deathly, only expanding into further sadness. “The Drifter” is a straightforward acoustic song with a moody backdrop. The deep-voiced singer utters his reflections. We’ve moved from gothic to dark folk with this one. “A Darkness Within” is like a continuation with its acoustic-ethereal folksy feel. The vocals seem more about mood than purity. “Once you turn dark you’ll never be blinded again”, goes a gloomy lyric belonging to this gloomy song. This is wrist-slashing stuff. As I listened to the sombre, hymnal tones of “Something Truly Almighty” I realised what this reminded me of: Burzum. It takes a different direction though as the hymnal sound is joined by an acoustic guitar and a dark folk song. It’s as if the weight of the clouds above is pressing down, so sorrowful is this song. With it there is beauty. Crashing sounds enter the scene, followed by a tremolo sound from the guitar. Hitherto the feel has been one of solitude but as the song expands, an echoing chant emerges. “Something Truly Almighty” is an interesting and impactful song. After all this gloom, the final song “The Crown of All” regales us with battering black metal. The vocal sounds urgent as if a matter of great importance is being uncovered. Through acoustic folksy woodlands we pass. Amid a crashing sound a male-female dialogue appears, culminating in “I Am The Crown of All” and followed by a flamboyant rock-black section before it winds down.

This is an unusual album in its mixture of style and structure, and it is all the better for that. I must confess I found very little light in it, compared to the swathes of gloom, despair and darkness. Without doubt “From the Infinite Light” is authentic and musically creative in its capture of almost exclusively dark moods.

(7/10 Andrew Doherty)

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https://iterumnata.bandcamp.com/album/from-the-infinite-light