Lamentari – Clavis Aurea
Release Date: 8th April 2022
Label: Over the Under/ Nightcrawler Promotion
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Genre: Black Metal, Heavy Metal, Symphonic Metal, Death Metal.
FFO: Cradle of Filth, Emperor, Dimmu Borgir.
Review By: Jay Creepy
Okay, so this one is different. The short intro is orchestral and made me think of Brian May’s soundtrack to Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, that kind of building drama and high quality feel. Sweeping, and large, in fact it really does feel like an 80s movie. Then mid way, the chugging guitars and such kick in, adding such a gigantic element of enlightenment to proceedings.
Yes, welcome to the world of Lamentari (“a passionate expression of grief or sorrow”), known for their symphonic death and black metal. The kind of stuff I could imagine an occult or supernatural based wrestler emerging to in an arena to approach the squared circle. Cradle of Filth and Emperor have made this apparent in their catalogues of music before, to name but two, yet Lamentari have something else, a depth beyond others. Sede Vacante is the jolter, as song two hits you. Most importantly for metal freaks, the vocals courtesy of Daniel Longberg (Inacave) growl and snarl perfectly and an ideal ingredient to the rumbling movie happening behind him. This is uplifting and terrifying. Max Uldahl builds a crescendo of brutal exotic sounds as Daniel‘s voice doubles up in parts to lend more richness.
Now then, Synod is really when the madness and chaos hits the fan. Thomas Mascagni pounds the drums like a tribal warrior as his clan go to war. This is epic, imagine every dark medieval or monster driven film, this is it in a nutshell audio style. And it only gets better. The near ten minute, Iconostasis annihilates everything. This has been constructed with care and attention, from its ease you in carefully beginning, to the switch over, transition after transition, burning guitars, horns, keys, everything swamps you. My track of the year thus so far.
These Scandinavian beasts are unstoppable if this wave of majestic music continues to be unleashed. This is the sort of thing I could have heard Christopher Lee narrate or sing over. 
(5 / 5)
