IN CAUDA SEMPER STAT VENENUM

When the first church organ and piano slither out like pale fingers in the creaking, opening door that separates you from the dark depths behind, you feel you're in for a nice travelogue into the darker reaches of the human psyche and all the mystic hinterlands we've come to associate it with.

Occult rituals, unseen forces and powers beyond control in a melodramatic and Gothic setting, with chilling wind and other mysterious effects through damp, forlorn and ivy-laden ruins and long forgotten, long crumbling churchyards as the natural complement. Truly a mood affair this album, with little to offer in terms of fiery melodic exercises and shining, complex composition. Just about everything is about space, atmosphere, reflection, imagery and focused impact.

The dirge-like church organ feels as overpowering and sombre as the finality and inescapability of death, but rather than pure horror at the thought, there's always a streak of sadness and chilling beauty that comes through. It is rather merciless in its onslaught, sucking all the air out of the compositions in a commanding and unrelenting way. Together with some delicately played and contrasting airier piano ringing out its cleansing and relieving melodies, the mood is occasionally lightened, but always given a dark and fateful grounding. This feeling is only enhanced by the sparse, but loudly booming, echoing and funereal percussion. On Initatio, a beautiful wordless female vocal transcends this mix of sounds into something really spiritual and remarkably tender, without ever truly letting go of the aforementioned all-encompassing gloom. A high-point of the album.

But having said that, this is where the experience turns a bit sour for this reviewer. Because the proto-doom guitars that occasionally rear their ugly heads here and there are a definite let-down. Leaving the debate of when they were actually added and if they could possibly be one of the earliest use of such sounds aside, they still don't work, regardless of possible inventiveness. They ruin the atmosphere in clumsily plodding sounds that are both dry, bloodless and out of place. Where this type of riffs and guitar-work is majestic in the hands of Tony Iommi and in a Black Sabbath-setting, here they just feel extraneous and jarring. Naked and ugly in a way that sharply contrasts to the profoundness of the rest of the album. It's just mismatched to me. Where I'm sure the idea was to emphasize and add weight and power, to me they have the opposite effect, making the album head into gimmicky and crudely effect-seeking territory. Unfortunately the exact same thing can be said about the cringe-worthy and matter-of-fact Latin incantations that ruin the experience of the music from time to time. If you don't want vocals, that's fine, but don't give me soulless, hollow comments instead, in Latin or otherwise. Gimmicky, and desperately hammering in a mood and setting which is already perfectly clear when the music speaks for itself. Some poetic or melodic sensibility could perhaps have saved them, but this unembellished delivery is not doing it. Thankfully, they aren't that many or that long.

On balance, it's a conflicted album. Where I would have wanted a purer experience, based on the sides I thoroughly enjoy, the band obviously was looking for something else. Good for them, bad for me. Regardless of my personal opinion, it's still a rather unique experience. And there are great moments scattered all over the album if you're willing to dig for them. I just don't see myself doing that all too often.

2 stars.

//LinusW