Band:	Ars Magna Umbrae
Album:	Apotheosis
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	August 21, 2020
A review by:	RaduP

01. Through Fields Of Asphodel
02. She Who Splits The Earth
03. On The Wings Of Divine Fires
04. Apotheosis
05. Mare Tenebrarum
06. Oracle Of Luminous Dark
07. Of Divine Divergence
08. Ignis In Tenebris

Their last album looked like a vulva. This one has a nice pair of breasts on it. What is Ars Magna Umbrae trying to tell us?

I mean, it can't be a coincidence. It even has a song called "She Who Splits The Earth". Horny black metal aside, the absolutely amazing cover arts that both albums had an immediate effect on me in a way that few other albums do. Though I didn't manage to review 2018's Lunar Ascension, I was pretty convinced to do so for the next album whenever that dropped, and surely enough, looking at the cover art of this one, I was mesmerized as well. A one man Polish black metal group that didn't really sound close to most of the Polish black metal bands I knew was always a great addition.

There are bands that sound like Ars Magna Umbrae, don't get me wrong, even Polish ones like Blaze Of Perdition, but even though they share similarities to bands like Nightbringer, Sinmara or Akhlys, there is still something that is setting them apart, aside from the cover arts. The base of the sound is still the very dissonant often mid-paced occult black metal, but there are two things that I feel are doing that: the extreme care given to the production and the avant-garde leanings that some sections have. And though they're still not enough to make Ars Magna Umbrae the hottest new band in black metal just yet, I'd be hard pressed to find an album that sounds both as exquisite and as odd as Apotheosis.

There's a bit of an irony in how those two things are handled. The album begins with the ambiental side, as is often the case, manifested in the opening track. And that track alone, with its lush production and a great mood that feels both ominous and somewhat grandiose despite how subdues it is. So when it transitions into the black metal it kinda loses the grandiose appeal initially because it feels like the production pulls the rug from right under the black metal's feet. Though the initial impression was botched on my side, and I kept feeling a bit let down by how the black metal sounded, it kept feeling more weird as it went on. Why were certain parts emphasized, why were others not, and basically how could it sound so wrong and so right at the same time? How could an album that feels like it places so much care on the production do things so unintuitively? Unless, of course, that was the point.

I've noticed it do the same thing but with different methods. It warms me up and then pulls the rug. However, it pulls the rug really gently. It's not really that interested in just being unconventional, since the vast majority of it is still pretty conventional, but it just wants to make sure you don't get too comfortable. It stays orthodox and then it blasts some avant-garde guitar sections, like the ones in "She Who Splits The Earth", or that solo in "Oracle Of Luminous Dark", the only part played by someone other than K.M., you'll know it when you hear it. And then it soothes you back with its absolutely sultry mellower sides, like I wouldn't know he's gonna do it again sometime soon. But the beauty of it is, it didn't even need to do that, it could've stayed completely in conventional territories and still be a great album, but he just had to give it a cherry on top.

However, trying to sense a pattern into what the next Ars Magna Umbrae will have in store for us, I think us booty connoisseurs will finally get our due. And K.M. will also likely get better at his craft.