Lamentari makes history.
With three EPs to their credit, the Danish band made up of Daniel Lønberg (vocals, Inacave), Max Uldahl Pedersen (keyboards), Emil Holst Partsch (guitar), Thomas Mascagni (drums, Lysbaerer, Sunless Dawn), Jamie de la Sencerie (bass, Lysbaerer) and Michael Møller (guitar, Sunless Dawn) is no stranger before announcing Ex Umbra In Lucem, their debut full-length.
The album kicks off with Spiritus Noctis, an ominous introduction that already reveals majestic orchestral elements, before setting fire to Tenebrae and its impressive riffs infused with furious Black/Death. Unhealthy leads and powerful vociferations accompany our progress through this grandiose universe with sharp riffs fuelling the ambient aggression, as on Tragoedia In Domo Dei, where the catchy rhythm is adorned with heady keyboards. An intriguing moment of quietude, haunted by fretless bass, allows us to breathe before rage resurfaces to carry us away in its suffocating waves, leading us to Intra Muros Mentis and its tapping introduction that perfectly fits the track’s frantic approach. Guitars’ madness is joined by the orchestrations, which sublimate each other before returning to the sometimes heavy, then largely wilder fury of Appugno, which lets the musicians run wild with devastating riffs. Theatrical influences are as much in evidence in the screams as in the hypnotic harmonics, before the final’s apotheosis takes us to Dolorum Memoria, where the introduction allows a moment of floating in its haze. Clean vocals finally appear, slowly transforming into growls as the haunting rhythmic pattern takes hold, gradually gathering momentum and creating a veritable tornado of notes that only comes to an end with Spiritus Diurnus, a dark interlude of choirs and strings. Saturation returns with Arcanum Ignis Animae, the final composition where the vocalist pours out all his darkness on impressive, rhythmic riffs, punctuated by sulfurous strikes and other piercing leads.
Lamentari has learned from the greatest names in Symphonic Black and Death Metal to offer us its own interpretation of hell. Ex Umbra In Lucem is far from a long, pompous album; on the contrary, it reveals a fury that inspires us with boundless courage.
95/100