After a decade in the shadows, Tenebrae In Perpetuum release their fourth album. Yep, I hold my hands up, I don’t recall them previously but that’s maybe my age. Ok ostensibly they are a one-man project of a gent named Atratus, but helped out with the drumming this time by Chimmsicrin of Gorrch. So much, so PR release.

What we have musically is black metal of a slightly curious composition. ‘Dissonanze Mentali’ opens with agonised screams and a weird pulsing electronic beat before and avalanche of cold and sharply scything black metal slices downwards. The vocals, slightly echoing are barely constrained insanity and the guitars treble heavy modern and clinical black metal. Every now and then the electronic sounds resurface but mostly it’s that guitar sound that dominates. The title track next begins again with odd, unsettling electronics like a weird helicopter circling and more restrained but no less unhinged vocals. It is quite the effect; disturbed, electronic but undeniably black metal. The guitars wander around, dissonant and evocative. It kind of reminds me a little of Blut Aus Nord at their more experimental or Midnight Configuration at their most violent, the determined but deranged attack, the moments of bleak quiet otherworldly atmosphere. After the fairly standard opening track it is quite captivating.

As the album progresses I find myself more intrigued and affected by the moments and passages that steer away from the standard cold, almost clinical riffing and lurch into the chaos inherent in the vocals and the beautifully judged electronics. The issue being of course that this is very much weighted towards the guitar work. It’s not like the guitars are shoddy or anything, there are some excellent lead breaks and the riffs are on point. It’s just when it breaks free of that for me it is much, much more intriguing and much more of a distinct sound.

Maybe I want it to be something it isn’t, but I honestly don’t think so. These dark, eccentric and electronic moments when allied to the strong guitar work bring out the shadows even more. Without them I find it a bit cold, standard, clinical black metal. With them it is something else entirely. The man has a touch with them, a feel that moves from unbalancing to downright wrong. I’d love to hear him go further down that rabbit hole.

(7/10 Gizmo)

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