vote
7.0
- Band:
Sea Mosquito - Duration: 00:44:05
- Available since: 01/08/2025
- Label:
-
I Voidhanger Records
Streaming not yet available
The previous Sea Mosquito, or that “Igitur” released in 2023 on Onism, was a very challenging album for the writer, but at the same time full of stimuli from an artistic point of view. From that moment, the mysterious English duo has published a collection of material from the first part of the career and then announced a new album under the, Voidhangers, probably one of the less fearful labels to explore the boundaries of extreme music.
“Majestas” is conceptually quite different from its predecessor, as it is not a story put in music (“Igitur” moved between sci-fi and horror) but of reflections on spirituality, religion and the relationship between divine and human. Even if not narrative, it is still possible to perceive the most abstract concept in our opinion in the six movements that make up the album, substantially more compact and less 'experimental' than in the past.
Do not fear, however: we are always talking about music of non -immediate use, given that the references are Deathspell Omega, Blut Aus Nord and if we want to stay on the roster of the Italian label, sea cognitum and esoccilihum for their colorful but at the same time frightening imaginary non -Euclidean imaginatives and for the complete lack of fear in accepting solutions.
After some listening, “Majestas”, however, is less complex than the previous album and, in the writer's opinion, lives more than impacts and alternations of more traditionally black metal moods. The second “Dead to the World” is perhaps the best example to describe it, with its acoustic guitars, the heartbreaking voice and the sudden Nordic outbursts.
The rest is quite well accompanied, with vocal litanies on “Organs Dissolved in Lacquer”, the progressions of “To Look Upon Your Own Skeleton” – perhaps the most exquisitely programmatic song of the Sea Mosquito style – and the oriental influences of “In Reverence of Pain” or the Arabic language of “Ode to Wine” (the most particular of the lot).
“Majestas”, despite its relative structural simplicity, will surely please those who already know the group, could be well accepted by fans of catalog I, Voidhanger and more generally it could be an entry point for listeners, perhaps not so paid in this type of extreme music but still fascinated by the musical exploration that the Mayhem have sketched at the time of “Grand Declaration of War”, always in the move as always in movement. Dodheimsgard and the aforementioned AUS Nord and Deathspell Omega.
Of course, the peaks achieved by the latter two names are still far away, but the Sea Mosquito remain a good reality certainly to be explored.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
