Band:	Imperium Dekadenz
Album:	Procella Vadens
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	January 18, 2010
A review by:	KwonVerge

01. Die Hoffnung Stirbt...
02. Lacrimae Mundi
03. A Million Moons
04. Ego Universalis
05. À La Nuit Tombante
06. An Autumn Serenade
07. Ocean, Mountain's Mirror
08. The Descent Into Hades
09. Procella Vadens
10. ...Wenn Der Sturm Beginnt

Dämmerung Der Szenarien was a pretty strong album by the Deutsch black metal act Imperium Dekadenz, three years later the band returns with a release worthy of its predecessor, Procella Vadens. Once again, the cover artwork captivates the listener and gives a very good first impression and an idea of what will follow, black metal drowned in grey rivers of melancholy and menacing narrow lanes.

The main atmosphere-evoking factor has to be the razor sharp sound of the guitars that violates gently the ears of the listener and creates an arena of melancholy that overruns the whole duration of the album, flirting with ominous sound corridors. Of course there are moments when electricity goes off and the acoustic parts take control alongside some keyboard lines that play their part in the final outcome. The main tempo is actually somewhere in the middle, being neither afraid to speed up without losing in terms of atmosphere and expression nor slow down and calm the overall soundscape for a while. Horaz's vocals remain utterly hallucinating with his dry yet to the point howls and screams that step on the pathway the organic marriage of guitars and rhythm section pave in harmony. The production is clean enough as well as distorted to make the sound of the album vivid and at the same time manifest the ambiance of the compositions.

Procella Vadens is an album that combines the aggressive face of melody with its more fragile side, lowering the defences of the listener, offering him wholeheartedly a one-way ticket to a dissonant landscape that consumes body and soul. Some of the highlights have to be the ceremonial aura of "The Descent Into Hades" that sounds like a collaboration of Dead Can Dance's earlier work with a darker Loreena McKennitt, the epic air of "Ocean, Mountain's Mirror", the imposing sense of desolation through "Lacrimae Mundi" and "A Million Moons" and the more tormented "An Autumn Serenade" and the title-track.

Imperium Dekadenz managed to release one of the strongest black metal releases for 2010 the way I see it, inspired and filled with atmosphere that will appeal to the audience of the band and why not, anyone involved with black metal.