Band:	Imperium Dekadenz
Album:	Dis Manibvs
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	August 26, 2016
A review by:	Troy Killjoy

01. In Todesbanden
02. Only Fragments Of Light
03. Still I Rise
04. Dis Manibvs
05. Pantheon Spells
06. Vae Victis
07. Volcano
08. Somnia
09. Pure Nocturnal Rome
10. Seikilos

Doing less with more may not seem like a compliment, but then again Imperium Dekadenz have a way of utilizing excess space in their favor.

Dis Manibvs wasn't some overly ambitious atmospheric black metal masterpiece that would re-invigorate the genre with its newfound groundbreaking innovations, but it did have a job to do, and a job it did. Horaz and Vespasian were coming off a comparative let-down in Meadows Of Nostalgia, a trying three years after their landmark release, Procella Vadens. That same amount of time was spent creating this attempted return to form, and while it objectively ticked just about every box you could hope for as a fan of the band, it still lacked a not-so-obvious something that made their definitive album, well, definitive.

With its upbeat-in-tempo but downbeat-in-mood style typical of the so-called "blackgaze" movement already declining in popularity at the time despite its infancy -- a flashy trend in the metal scene if there ever was one -- this album seemed tailor-made for the hipster black metal crowd while retaining barely enough of the genre's original trademark sound to entice the self-proclaimed true crusaders. In its apparent hubris, Dis Manibvs was a marketing failure in that it focused too much on its black metal roots as opposed to branching out into the more melodic metal and entirely non-metal demographics for criticism (or praise).

This is still an entirely "metal" album, as it were, but it's one that has a better chance in circles not hung up on which sub-genre it belongs to. Play it before a friend who typically listens to emotionally charged, atmospheric music regardless of genre, and they will undoubtedly find something in this release that appeals to them. The harsh vocals aren't abnormally brutal and the blastbeats are so softened in the mix that they may as well be deemed radio-friendly. The sorrowful melodies and blanketed dissonance will appeal to anyone with ears -- almost pop-like in its mainstream marketability. Moments of grandeur strike when least expected, but overall it's an incredibly expected album. It does little to challenge the norms established by the genre's predecessors, following the formulaic dominoes since Procella Vadens, yet it deviates ever so slightly in its interludes and underlying aggression.

Imperium Dekadenz have grown softer as an outfit over the years, perhaps in an attempt to garner more widespread attention, or simply because their influences or ambitions have changed, but the consistency in their atmospheric emotionally driven music still garners worthwhile attention from both black metal aficionados and casual metal fans alike. Dis Manibvs is as unremarkable as it is exactly what it's supposed to be.