Return of Mavorim to close 2024.
Baptist (vocals/guitar/bass, Eisenkult) and Valfor (drums, Asenheim, Eisenkult, Slagmark, Totenwache) close this year with the release of their fifth album, In Ominia Paratus, via Purity Through Fire.
In Omnia Paratus, the eponymous title track, is rather confusing: it features martial strikes in a rather dark atmosphere, where a few murmurs appear, eventually joining a rather eerie chaos where porcine screams break the quietude, before returning to the saturation of Black Metal on Als der Menschheit Wille brach. Vociferations and cold riffs occasionally welcome more melancholy leads, adding a melodic touch to the raw sound, while Zerfall offers a much more brutal Old School approach. A few keyboards turn the track into an epic, dungeon-like affair, but the base remains as catchy as ever, before giving way to Tu’ ich meine Augen zu, which starts softly, but quickly gives way to an effective, somewhat dissonant rhythmic pattern, with both clear and saturated vocals. The finale is clearly more soaring, but turns into a full-blown blast when Stählerne Reihen kicks in, including devastating Folk influences in the rhythm, but also in the more imposing backing vocals. Ein fahles Ross reverts to an airy melancholy that suits all types of vocals equally well, but eventually flares up and becomes more aggressive, blending its two approaches before the fury seizes Aller Abart Gloria. Majestic touches adorn the more obvious savagery, but they also transform it into piercing melody to continue the track before metamorphosing into misty dissonance with the opening moments of Träume. The riffs remain fairly vaporous even as they accelerate, gradually weaving this dreamlike universe into which Baptist howls before letting the sound cease, picking up again when Alles stirbt begins with much more vivid, bloody patterns. The band maintains its power for the whole track, before the finale allows us a brief moment of respite before Der letzten Sonne Untergang, the very long final composition of over ten minutes, where the band installs and nurtures its dark atmosphere in different ways, first quite motivating, then very soaring and finally blending the two before disappearing into that eerie silence.
Mavorim‘s sound has always been highly contrasted, but In Ominia Paratus has the luxury of further diversifying its influences. The tracks are very different from one another, but they flow naturally into one another.
90/100
