On their full-length debut, Argentina’s Grima Morstua unleash old-school black metal, plain and simple. Thus, no formal innovations, but the band’s work inside the idiom is highly compelling. I’ve had Illustratio per Horribilem Obscuritatem (Drakkar Productions, 2007) in headphones on repeat for the past three days, and my enjoyment of it hardly diminishes each time.
The guitar work is gorgeous, with rippling curtains of dissonance, almost-jazzy chords, and constant, subtle motion in the voicings. This might sound weird, but the rich harmonies sound almost…romantic. If you recast these songs with different instrumentation and attack, you could get, say, a ’60s French movie soundtrack. Refreshingly for black metal, low end is very much a presence, which the rolling, deliberate grooves accentuate.
Some lyrics are in Spanish (presumably in the funky, Italian-tinged variety characteristic of Buenos Aires), which adds extra evil. With its rolled r’s and percussive syllables, Spanish is a great language for metal. Nicely natural production and classy artwork round out the record, which is available from The AJNA Offensive and The End in the US, and from Drakkar Productions in Europe.
Very full and natural production, which is excellent for black metal. The spanish sound absolutely awesome in this context! Nice find.
IO,
I recently wrote up a review for this that will be published shortly at L4M. I enjoyed this, as well, but I felt that the guitar work was a bit too sloppy at times. There are a few moments when the music meanders aimlessly a bit and the guitarist seems unsure of what to do next. Other than that, a good album. As Helm mentioned, the Spanish rasps do really work well here.
Interesting – the guitar work was my favorite part of the album. So many interesting riffs! Sure the songs pack in a lot of riffs, but overall I found this quite well-done.