ESCUMERGAMËNT – Apparebat Eidolon Senex

vote
7.0

• Bands:
  ESCUMERGAMËNT
• Duration: 00:44:55
• Available from: 10/07/2026
• Label:

• Avantgarde Music

Escumergamënt return five years after their debut “…ni degu fazentz escumergamënt e mesorga…”, picking up the conversation exactly where they left off. The Swedish quartet, which continues to keep its identity confidential, continues along that path of atmospheric, melancholic black metal deeply linked to the imagery of the second Scandinavian wave, confirming once again the desire to preserve certain atmospheres rather than chasing innovative solutions.

“Apparebat Eidolon Senex” tells of restless ruins, of landscapes corroded by time which find a natural musical translation in seven songs wrapped in a cold and oppressive blanket. The guitars draw melancholic melodies with a flavor strongly steeped in tradition, while keyboards and arrangements contribute to building an atmosphere constantly suspended between restlessness and contemplation.
From the very first bars it emerges that Escumergamënt have no intention of reinventing anything within the genre: the coordinates are the classic ones and already widely explored since the nineties, names such as Burzum or Abigor come to mind, with more or less evident references during listening, carefully avoiding copycats and banal re-propositions.
In fact, it would be simplistic to stop at the 'reminiscent' aspect of the band: despite moving within defined boundaries, in fact, the group demonstrates a certain compositional verve, managing to restore a good fluidity in the construction of the songs, as happens in pieces such as “Radiant Glimmering Whorl” or “Laudanum and a Silver Scalpel”, songs that flow with a morbid cadence, between accelerations, 'melodic' passages (“The Demon's Approach” with its rotten beginning), and melancholic constructions full of imaginative tension.
The production appears full-bodied, even considering that we are talking about a very aseptic black metal recorded without digital frills, and what dominates is the strong presence of guitar textures capable of creating a sense of distance and mystery, which represents a rather tangible characteristic of the album. Songs like “To The Graves!” or “The Eyeless Festering God” highlight the band's ability to construct suggestive, dark and threatening, evocative and violent melodies.

The band is quite personal, in particular knowing how to carefully balance the keyboard strokes that accompany the progress of the songs, rather than drawing real plots; if we want to find a limit in the proposal, this certainly lies in the difficulty of leaving a truly personal imprint within a style that over the years has been described in every nuance, but which at the same time more than others can however show new ideas and developments.
A very precise championship is played without surprises and, beyond the fact that we are talking about a truly pleasant album, some passages inevitably convey a feeling of déjà-vu, and not all the ideas developed manage to maintain the same effectiveness for the entire duration of the album.
However, it remains a convincing work, capable of offering a good forty minutes of atmospheric black metal played with taste, restraint and awareness.