Band:	Mahr
Album:	Antelux
Style:	Atmospheric black metal
Release date:	February 2018

01. Apostasy
02. Noctaeon
03. Onirism
04. Hypnophobia

Yes, I know, this was released in February, but bear with me, folks. This is that good kind of atmospheric black metal. You know, the kind that actually creates an atmosphere. Or, in the case of this void-focused one, sucks the atmosphere, I guess. The Darkspace worship to end all Darkspace worships.

We don't know a lot about Mahr. We know that they are part of the Prava Kollektiv, along with Voidsphere and Arkhtinn. We know that they're all signed to Fallen Empire Records. We know that they share members, but nothing about them at all. Also we have no idea where they came from, other than that they are "an entity from the North", but given the fact that the collective's name is spelt in Cyrillic, we can place our bets on Russia. And with the other two also playing some sort of cosmic atmospheric black metal, at face value, there isn't much to set them apart.

But Antelux being the latest release of the collective and under another name, it is here that we find them at the peak of their craft so far. The sound of the album has finally been perfected to perfectly evoke the atmosphere that it strives to create. Taking further the sound that Darkspace popularized, the music is cold and suffocating. One may associate the atmosphere with whatever images it evokes; for me, it was the feeling of being stuck alone on a broken spaceship and approaching a wormhole to hell. The music is so effective in its ambiance both because the production quality has improved in the collective and also because the percussion and the keyboards create both a dynamic and static feeling at the same time, if that makes sense. Couple that with the drowned-out vocals with its occasional bloodcurdling shrieks and the reverb-soaked guitars and the 40-minute ride towards intergalactic doom is so much more compelling.

This might be a watershed moment for the Prava Kollektiv, as both Voidsphere and Arkhtinn are set to release new albums this year, but expectations have been set so high with Antelux. We can only hope. Meanwhile, the crushing journey can be taken for just a name-your-price here.