Band:	Illuminandi
Album:	In Via
Style:	Gothic folk metal
Release date:	May 28, 2010
A review by:	Thryce

01. Intro
02. The Promise
03. Poczekalnia
04. Cela
05. Wejdź
06. Interludium
07. Reborn
08. Illumina Tenebras Meas
09. W Drodze
10. ...I O Tym Drugim...
11. A Blessing

Folk metal/Gothic metal
Recorded: Chinook Studio, Poland 2010
Label: Ars Mundi
Total Running Time: 39:34


Illuminandi are a seven-piece Christian metal band from Poland who will take you on a journey of brightness and atmosphere to far-away lands that only your imagination can behold. Ever-changing landscapes are woven together with various shaking paths that lead to an assortment of dreamy emotions. With a suiting sturdiness, the gracious melodies will figure a way right through the ebbs and flows of the listener's inner nature. There. I give you; the essence of In Via.

There's obviously something poetic about this album - in case you failed to notice. Illuminandi play fairly straightforward but most of all beautiful music. In Via will reveal itself as a stylistically varied album, despite its clear straightforwardness.

With refined elegance, the band melts together all sorts of unconditional ideas and broad-based musical influences. In Via is a blender of atmospheres taken from gothic metal, symphonic metal, heavy metal and of course folk metal. Violin and cello form a prominent part of the melodies and don't get dominated by the heavy guitar riffs. Most of the lyrics are written in Polish, but that shouldn't be an annoyance. Male vocals are both harsh and clean. The pace is often calm and serene - much calmer than the band's other work in either case - sometimes also appropriately rougher and corrugated, without getting overly complicated or technical. The point is enchanting music with a spirit. And the crisp production helps a lot too.

In Via is above all an adventure for the mind. I can't limit the songs you should check out as it all fits together so well (except for maybe "Cela", one of the rougher tracks on the album. The song's hostility sounds out of place.) Still, you'll have to discover this thing in its whole and in its details. This album may excel in its deceptive simplicity, but there's more to it.

Not really something exceptional, yet special in its own little way.