Band:	Aquilus
Album:	Griseus
Style:	Ambient, Atmospheric black metal, Symphonic black metal
Release date:	December 21, 2011
Guest review by:	qlacs

01. Nihil
02. Loss
03. Smokefall
04. In Lands Of Ashes
05. Latent Thistle
06. Arboreal Sleep
07. The Fawn
08. Night Bell

I am currently in a round of doing reviews on first time listens. Everything that comes to hand from random searches. Right now, I'm so glad that this is the first piece of my experiment. Due to this I won't give any rating, you better try it for yourself.

Imagine your non-kvlt epic black metal band doing top notch music. Give it some more touch. And even more.
Aquilus, this one man project, does some intensely atmospheric, ridiculously well-composed black metal infused something. I can't call it black or gothic, sometimes it's not even metal. All I know is that it's just consistently good, and I'm sucked into it. Oriental melody here, soundtrack-like piece there, and then fuzzy black metal with either epic sounding chorus or growling. Griesus sort of repeats the same recipe, but not the same themes. It is instrumental most of the time, you'll hear quite a lot of changes but they all deliver surprises to your ears. Of course it doesn't mean that your brutal kvlt mood can't find its joy at times, but this music is certainly made for other purposes.

On similar productions, a lot of things come down to the production level. I don't know who did the mixing but I'd like to shake his hand. It's a great balance between crystal clear and vague; everything sounds as it should be.

I've been speechless quite a few times already; Griesus brings great stuff to the table. It's a grand piece of inspiration, that aspires to spawn more of the same.

Get some of this. Black metal influenced music never had better suits.