Wooden scenery as cover art and with a name like Aetherius Obscuritas, chances are this music would be right down my alley.
Brainchild of Hungarian Arkhorrl, this act released a first demo in 2002 called "Vilagra Jött." It was followed by a second one in 2004, "Stotet Profecia." Arkhorrl kept himself quite busy afterwards by releasing three, yes I said three full lengths as well as a split CD with Thokkian Vortex. As efficient on guitars, in all of its manifestations, as he is behind the microphone or on a keyboard, this musician has crafted 12 compositions reflecting his own concept of the Black Metal arts. The overall feel here is melodic and epic and the tempo is, most of the time, in the fast mode with lots of those blast beats. Fortunately, at least for me, calmer and moderate paces are also to be heard. One song, for instance, "Black Woodland", is actually more into the doom phase of Dark Metal, to my greatest pleasure. Mind you, the distorted arpeggios and haunted whispers give this number a very sick edge. The much calmer instrumental, "Who Never Really Left", built on clean guitar work and wind samplings, comes in as a soothing breeze in the harsher scenery.
All in all, we have a pleasant Black Metal album, easy to listen to, epic at times but I would have hoped for some acoustic parts and less blast beats.
