Grima Morstua - Illustratio per Horribilem Obscuritatem

Rating: 8.0

Country: Argentina

Release Date: 2007

Track list:
1. Refleja Su Maldicion 05:18
2. Espectros de la Crucifixion 05:45
3. For My Vengeance to Rest 06:22
4. Asesina Tu Luz 06:59
5. Venenum Sathani 05:20
6. Gods of Rotten Human Flesh 05:00
7. Serpent Messiah 05:46

Total playing time 40:32

Band Website: Grima Morstua

Grima Morstua - Illustratio per Horribilem Obscuritatem

Ventriz Grimorium - Guitars
Inkiuvo - Bass
Serpienenev - Vocals
Glasthered - Drums

Another notch in the orthodox black metal post, Grima Morstua wander the territory of Malign, Ondskapt, early Deathspell Omega, Funeral Mist, etc.; that kind of Satanic zealotry. Unlike the latter couple among these bands, however, this horde does not attempt to pad ritualistic ambience around their music as a vehicle for their sonic agenda (aside from about thirty tepid seconds of Gregorian chanting, an aspect of the album worthy of omission), but instead use and their predominantly mid-paced tangle of churning blackness and unique vocalist's vulgar vocalizations to evoke that feeling of obscure dogma dominating France and Sweden. When Serpienenev breaks out of his warbling croak and sings -- you know, with melody and his actual voice, as rare as that sort of thing is in albums where the guitars sound like insect wings -- in his native tongue over harmonic chunks of palm-muting, you'll know that despite the pretension orthodox black metal tends to entail, this is pure substance.

Submerged in waves of seasick tremolo abuse, the skinpounding's not unlike that of early Immortal in that it merely serves as a noisy backdrop rather than actual rhythmic support. The drums and bass are even more soft, distant, and ultimately irrelevant than those of, say, Pure Holocaust, allowing perpetually solitary riffcrafting to express the band's ideas. I suppose some of the songs tend to drag approaching their resolution, but part of the romantic appeal of black metal is that there is no discernible threshold on which to base such a rigid judgement; if the riff's good, it can drone on blissfully for ten minutes at a time without getting old.

I must again stress how versatile the vocalist is, with a voice ranging from a wet shrill to theatrical pseudo-operatics, sometimes both in the same nauseating exhalation. Listen three minutes into the song "For My Vengeance to Rest"; is that even human? Occasionally my interest begins to wander from the music, and all it takes is a radical shift in Serpienenev's vocal patterns to regain my attention. He's probably the highlight of Illustratio per Horribilem Obscuritatem, even if it is impossible to pronounce his name without stuttering. Go ahead, try it. Serpienene-ne-ne-nev, shit.

Unfortunately, Grima Morstua are probably destined to catch a lot of shit for being "generic." Are they? Well, I guess, but no more so than the latest Gallhammer, Drudkh or Antaeus releases, to name a few hordes out of... a larger horde, and no one seems to be pissed off that they're simply building upon established musical constructs (albeit very well) with their own superficial quirks.

There is a seamless cohesion between the artistic vision Grima Morstua wish to express and their standard vocabulary of heterophonic trem-picking & blastbeats (unlike the music of most callow nowadays black metal bands, in which the two always seem to married in awkward conflict under the shallow pretense of rawness). Ultimately, Illustratio per Horribilem Obscuritatem is some extremely solid religious, Scandinavian-styled black metal from a country in which I'd never expect such a thing to emerge. Give it the attention it deserves if that's your cup of tea.

March 15th, 2008