Band:	Miserere Luminis
Album:	Miserere Luminis
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	November 03, 2009
A review by:	Troy Killjoy

01. Cineris
02. Le Mal Des Siècles
03. Ciel Tragique
04. IV
05. Birth Of New Ages
06. The Mist
07. Senectus
08. Miserere Luminis
09. Exulcerare

When was the last time you actually expected a collaborative undertaking to live up to expectations without deluding yourself?

Miserere Luminis was a short-lived (re: one-album-wonder) project created by the minds behind Gris and Sombres Forêts, both extremely prominent and influential bands within the Canadian black metal scene, more specifically the métal noir Québécois (Quebec black metal) scene. While both had their own individual takes on the more atmospheric and depressive style of black metal, their combined efforts on this album were anything but expected, though that could hardly be considered a bad thing.

Underneath the layers of beauty and sorrow and all the other pretty, whimsical adjectives you can muster to describe these two bands, there was a clear and present need to express a darker side without the pleasant surroundings to make it more palatable as with their home projects. This is what Miserere luminis is all about. It's the residual aggression left over from the equation that led to such masterworks as Il était une forêt... and Royaume de glace, and it could be argued that without this side project, those albums may have never seen successors. Artists need to be able to explore more than one avenue with their self-expression and can't always be limited and restricted to set parameters by a fan base or demographic.

Though this album is by no means a traditionally lo-fi, raw, old-school black metal album, it definitely borrows from that unrefined and simplistic formula that made the era of early '90s black metal so harsh and off-putting. There are some mainstay elements such as acoustic backdrops and piano interludes intertwined with the at-times shoegazing riffs, but they're careful not to venture too far into accessible or melodic territory, lest that putrid loathsome feeling is lost. The vocals are snappy and sharp so as not to drag out any meaningful emotions as well, just in case you thought you could feel sad for a moment.

With such a talented trio of classically trained multi-instrumentalists who have a clear understanding of how to engage their target audience, you can at least set aside whatever worries you have that Miserere Luminis is just another cash-grab group chasing dollars and fame. In fact, this comes across as an album more for the artists than the audience anyway, and that's really the only glaring flaw with this release. While you can feel free to enter with a clear conscience ready to embrace the culmination of two similar-yet-different concepts coming together to unload any and all remaining anger that their main projects couldn't make room for, it does at times seem a little too self-indulgent, and whether or not you can break past that barrier will define what you think of this album.