Band:	Arcana Coelestia
Album:	Nomas
Style:	Atmospheric black metal, Funeral doom metal
Release date:	October 11, 2014
A review by:	Auntie Sahar

01. Nomas I
02. Nomas II
03. Nomas III
04. Nomas IV
05. Nomas V

Funeral doom has always seemed to me to be split into two distinctly different camps. On the one hand, you have bands that are absolutely dark, desolate, and ominous with their sound, such as Evoken or Wormphlegm. And then, on the other, you have bands that prefer to take more of a relaxed approach, making things a bit brighter and epic in the process. Bands like Arcana Coelestia.

The third effort from this Italian duo sees them naturally building upon ideas that have already been established with their previous material. The music on Nomas is heavy and crushing, as is typical of the funeral doom style, but also with some beautifully melodic undertones, such as towards the middle of "Nomas II," or the acoustic guitar and impressive clean vocals on "Nomas III." Though sometimes minimal, these little touches of harmony here and there contribute greatly to the overall majestic feel of the music, and this helps Arcana Coelestia out a lot with feeling like something more than your average grim and gloomy funeral doom band.

In addition, Nomas is (much like the band's previous material) as much of a blackened doom album as it is a funeral doom album, and the line between the two is blurry, and often hard to pinpoint. With "Nomas IV" especially, tempo picks up, blast beats enter the picture, and the guitar technique takes much more of a traditional, tremolo picking BM approach. Despite these splashes of black metal being subtle, much like the band's melodic touches, they work well towards creating their own distinction of sound.

With Nomas, Arcana Coelestia seem to have found a territory that they're comfortable in, and if things weren't exactly working for them previously, they certainly are now. The various blend of influences makes this album enjoyable from many different perspectives: the fact that it's alternatively crushing, beautiful, and aggressive from the black metal side of things makes it highly alluring, and it's good to know that these guys are anything but one dimensional with their composing. Add this one to your extreme doom picks of 2014, you won't regret it.

Stream it on the holy Bandcamp.