Amid the axis of territorial sceneries, generational
junctures, the zeitgeist of concrete periods, there lies invariably
scattered anomalies that transgress the semblance of passing time, space
and reasoning itself, individuals and ensembles whose magnitude goes
beyond the imposing rules of artistic behavior. Within the Portuguese
Black Metal landscape, one of the epithets of perpetual yonder outside
the boundaries of any assorted alignment is Angrenost.
In
the course of a career that goes back to the cauldron of the mid 90s,
the group released an EP at the end of said decade yet retreating for a
long slumber that ended in 2013 with the release of Planet Muscaria.
Four years have passed and Angrenost returns with a retribution, the
emergence of a renewal, the harvesting of a new era. Nox et Hiems is an
opus of hermetical Black Metal darkness, a 63-minute tome of occult
mysticism that consumes the listener in a sinister divination. Divided
in two discs, one for each elemental direction, it exhales the tenebrous
sight of ecstasy by virtue of revenant omens to an onyx of glooming
darkness. A supreme act of numinous awakening, Nox et Hiems channels the
trembling glory of Lucifer in nine shadowy psalms zealous to the great
Unknown. Ritualistic, utterly somber, an all-consuming hex of gnostic
ascendancy is aurally illustrated by straightforward yet belligerently
cryptic riffs - rooted in the Black Metal milieu from the dark past -
intertwined with mid-paced chord progressions of dissonant continuum.
Powerfully atmospheric yet glowing of intense fervor, the distinct
arrangements are sustained by a dynamic mixing in a triumphant display
of aesthetic sense and aural virtue.
The artwork glorifies
the archaic, monolithic projections of the arcane, secret landscapes of
Granite, Night and Cold. The seeds of sinister grimness are overall
present on said penned crafts, therein spectral mantras that in rapture
unite sound, in spirit to the hidden keys to higher knowledge and the
nethermost void.
Nox et Hiems stands as a magnified
gathering of Black Metal mastership. Menacing and enlightening, these
abyssic hymns vow to distinctly emanate throughout the edges of
boundless time, for His Majesty, eternal and mighty. (Text by Mário Souto)
Masterpiece. Jewel Case CD version with 12 page booklet.