Opera IX
The Black Opera: Symphoniae Mysteriorum in Laudem Tenebrarum
CD

Review

Alternately measured, stately, eerie, driving, depressing, bombastic, or energetic, the seven songs (including a cover of the Bauhaus classic 'Bela Lugosi's Dead - pretty much a perfect choice for this band) here, when listened to in a single sitting, take you through a long journey of dark metal styles and melodic offerings - from the claustrophobic inner space of lightless muted-chord/doublebass crunching to breathing atmospheric passages that completely let go of the throttling pace in order to spread a web of tenebrous (it's part of the title!) infernal magic. There is something very close to Greek black metal in their sound, but I can not tell exactly what it is - the obscure riffing, the mid-paced walking through disparate melodies, the 'epic' compositions? - Erebus Magazine 4/5