Ubi Secreta Colunt

Arcana Coelestia represents a unique crossroads in the realm of extreme metal, one that I have personally only become somewhat familiar with recently. The presentation put forth on their sophomore effort “Le Mirage de l'Idéal” presented a heavily impressionistic tableau of sound that brought about imagery of obscured figures and lands under an oppressive fog, but their debut presents a somewhat different auditory perspective. It can be safely assumed, for those who have discovered this band through their 2nd album (as I did), that the same overall stylistic aesthetic of misty horizons, sorrowful melodies and a labyrinth of ambiences are maintained. But “Ubi Secreta Colunt” presents this hazy concept in a somewhat clearer, easier to digest package.

While the album that followed this one was heavily concerned with fantastical and esoteric themes, the overall subject of this album is a bit more simplistic, touching on the mysticism and obscurity of religion. The music is similarly bent a bit closer to the orthodox black metal paradigm, containing sections of heavy, darkness ridden death/black metal that is much more in line with the emergent tendencies of early 90s black and death/doom bands. “Arcane Knowledge Revealed Pt. II” takes a particularly aggressive and nasty approach, tearing through a sea of rapid paced blast beats and tremolo riffs, all the while maintaining the distant, obscured production quality. The vocal work of LS on this particular song is about as close to the frostbitten shrieks of early Emperor fame as can be without outright plagiarism.

Nevertheless, apart from the greater level of aggression and a slightly more concentrated dose of electronic sounds and guitar effects, it is easy to see this as being the same band that trudged the misty swamps of contemplative slowness that dominated their 2009 effort. Both the opening “Cult Of Solitude” and the closer “Enigma Epitaph” are largely drawn from that same blend of torturously slow beats, reverb infused guitars and keyboards, and a sorrowful mixture of harsh and clean vocals, though the barks and shrieks dominate most of the listen. The best way to contrast the two would be to liken this album to a group of forsaken souls screaming at the night stars in a swampy land with a heavy, yet still transparent fog and a decaying cathedral in the distance, whereas the mystique of “Le Mirage de l'Idéal” transcends any earthly analogy that I can bring to mind.

While notably shorter and easier to follow than the latest studio offering, I tend to lean a bit more towards that one then this near equally auspicious effort. My status as a newcomer to this hybrid of styles and my general preference towards others makes this more of an occasional fancy rather than a marriage for life, but this is something that most regular consumers of death/doom and black metal of the lighter and melodic strain could probably addict themselves to with little effort. It’s intensely woeful and dark enough to draw tears of blood from many, though it may unfortunately fly clear under the radar of most.

As a nation, Italy seems to be obsessed with black and gothic metal bands. Almost every band I’ve come across from Italy has played in either one of those genres, some times a hybrid of the two. Of course, it has a lot to do with what I intentionally scout out because, as I understand, Italy has a strong, but departed heavy metal scene that died out a number of years ago, only to be revived in the modern era by those who intentionally try to discover the best gems of the years gone by. Arcana Coelestia are a modern band, with modern elements that make them accessible to newcomers and novices when it comes to the funeral scene. This is a sub-genre of doom that is plagued by unbearable bands who tend to drift into the ambient, rather than exhibiting any experimentation by way of focusing a lot on the doom aspects in return. Although funeral doom is meant to compose of numerous ambient touches, bands often lose sight of the fact that this is also doom metal, not funeral metal. In my search for the best funeral doom band, I’ve come across many that focus far too much on providing a dank atmosphere through ambiance alone.

Although that might be achieved, by focusing all their might on the role of the keyboards, the band tends to lose a lot of its direction and thus, the bands sound drastically mutates from a poignant piece, into a problematic piece, stretching the level of tolerance that the listener affords any band that they listen to by boring them to tears with overly sensitive ambient passages that scream about the tedious nature of overcompensating in areas where subtleties need to be imposed on the instrumentation, as well as the atmosphere. Although there are very little gothic elements to be found here, Arcana Coelestia are most certainly a blackened funeral doom band, so even when they’re meant to be playing a primarily doom laden sound, somehow, Arcana Coelestia still manage to draw a lot of attention to the minority of black metal aspects of their debut, ‘Ubi Secreta Colunt’. As previously stated, the band do seem to endeavour towards a perfected hybrid style by drawing out elements from other genres that the listener would not have expected. The main vocals, provided by LS, remind me a lot of the vocals from a gothic band that can also be found on the Archives - The Sins of Thy Beloved.

The male vocals for both bands are akin due to the fact that they take on two forms of portrayal - low growls, which are far more sparse and used primarily as backing vocals, and higher pitched, watered down rasps of a black metal nature that seem to fuse with the doom growls to breed a new variation of vocals previously unheard of in this particular field of metal. One must accredit this band with some plaudits because they’re not typical, instead, as with the vocal portrayal, they have a tendency to be brave in their attempts. It is imperative that the band fuse as much black metal with the funeral side because funeral can become very tiresome in a short amount of time if it negates a sense of variation, which obviously harms the dynamics of the record, and how well it flows towards its conclusions. Arcana Coelestia are, by nature, a primarily funeral doom band. Slow guitars, slow bass and even slow percussion. Thankfully, the production, which is top notch, allows these elements to fuse together into a single hypnotic sound, which slowly entrances the listener as the record progresses. Technicalities aren’t a speciality of this band, but when they adjust the tempos to accommodate a faster, more rhythmic sound, the band do suggest that they are capable musicians and this assumption is solidified by the fact that the bands two primary musicians have a long history with the metal genre, as a whole.

MZ, for example, is a member of both Locus Mortis and Urna, two illustrious bands with already well established careers. Although LS doesn’t appear to have the history to back up his style, he has been with this band since their formation in 2004. Its remarkable that they have been around the scene for so long and still, they get very little attention bar the one review already here. There is no doubting that the primary target here is a funerary sound, as stated, and that is definitely achieved with the repetitious and slow artistic movements of the songs, which drape themselves around the listener like an apparition clinging on to their last sense of mortality before they’re dumped into the afterlife. The slow, often clean sound is likeable, but not very challenging. It does have a certain niche status attached to it, considering funeral doom and even black metal usually have epic layers of distortion as the foundations, but Arcana Coelestia, with this short debut, lean towards an astral ambiance, which fluctuates towards an oceanic sound also, as shown on the delightful introduction to ‘Cult of Solitude’. Considerably different to its peers, but perhaps a little too much. Influenced in part by Esoteric, so for fans of that lovable British band.

Only a short recording at about 33 minutes, this is a well-sculpted and unearthly black metal creation with a very dark and eerie atmosphere, sparkling keyboard tonal effects, solemn and doomy rhythms and thin vibrato guitar riffing. Porbalby the most outstanding aspect of this album is the singing which is multi-tracked and heavily reverbed vocals that give the impression of a huge demonic male choir.

You have four tracks whose titles suggest initiation into a secret cult and the gradual acquisition of gnostic knowledge. "Cult of Solitude" sets the tone for the rest of the album: you are introduced to a secret crypt beneath some grand building (a cathedral perhaps! - seeing this is the creation of two Italian musicians, you wouldn't put it past the Italians not to have some contradictory thing like a secret Satanic cult beneath a church) and descend downh a spiralling narrow staircase into a large dark airy space in which hooded acolytes, their faces unseen, conduct strange rituals in a long-forgotten language. The music is melodic in a minimalist repetitive way, helping to establish the overall sinister mood and preparing us for what comes next.

The next two tracks are parts 1 and 2 of "Arcane Knowledge Revealed": the first part is not very different from the opening track and seems like an extension of it. There are more black metal instrumental passages where the singing is pretty much drowned in echo. Not that this matters as the musicians are most likely singing in Latin and the murky nature of the singing fits in well with the sinister mood and the anticipation that something momentous is happening. Track 3 starts off more promisingly with a strong militaristic rhythm and more aggression in the music: the voices become more Satanic and vicious and the drumming speeds right up and stays at that fast pace. Here is where we get an extended instrumental break that goes hell for leather right to the end of the track as the novice presumably undergoes the most rigorous trial to prove their worthiness.

The final piece "Enigma Epitaph (a dirge in sculpture)" doesn't sound too encouraging: the slow pace is re-established, the demon chorus bursts into song as though nothing's really happened and the atmosphere is really cold and sorrowful with the keyboard effects dominating the early part of the piece. When guitars arrive, there's an air of finality about them and sure enough, everything quickly disappears leaving behind lingering traces of synth tones.

This is a likeable and interesting album, well crafted and atmospheric. Some of the music is not very distinctive and the tracks aren't different enough from each other though the concept allows you to view them as movements in a long opus. The first track has the most memorable riffs and the third track is different in pace from the others but my opinion is they should all be different though maybe the final track which sums up all that has gone before it could have some of the melodic motifs of the previous tracks. The music can be remote and not very involving emotionally: you feel like you're on the sidelines watching some other poor guy going through the motions of joining a cult and being rejected or on the other hand being accepted and having to undergo the consequences of acceptance. On the plus side, there's a definite other-worldly feel to the recording and the choir of demonic voices, not being very disciplined or co-ordinated, gives a delirious, almost psychedelic aspect to the music. There's not really a lot of screaming though. Maybe the musicians exercised a little too much good taste and if they had really let go on the singing and the music, we could have had a real cracker of a recording!