Vastiia Tenebrd Mortifera

Originally begun as a side project by a member of the BM band Celestia and for this recording including a second member from that band, Mortifera play a style of BM that's more melancholy than angry, and more turneful and melodic than raw and minimalist.

The rhythms can be rough and the singing is gravelly but the mood is oriented in a Gothic / Romantic direction. Acoustic guitar with slightly blues-tinged tones makes frequent though brief appearances throughout the album and the listener gets plenty of quiet time to ponder over the esoteric and quaint song titles: "Fvrahgments", "Aux Confins des Tenebrss" and "Abstrbve Negabvtiyon Rebssurectyion" to name a few. One track "Ciel Brouille" which features lyrics from a poem by 19th-century writer Charles Baudelaire is reminiscent of the post-rock Canadian band Godspeed You Black Emperor (may it rest in peace) and its offshoot The Silver Mt Zion Orchestra - yes, there is that familiar atmosphere of hopefulness and tragedy mixed together which continues into the next song. As the album progresses, the dominant mood shifts gradually from sad to sadder until we reach "Frutis of a Tragic End" which is a cover of a Celestia song.

Why Noktu needed to start the Mortifera project is a puzzle to me, given that the band at the time of recording featured another Celestia member and redid a Celestia song. Perhaps Mortifera enabled Noktu to deal with different subject matter or experiment with other music styles (though I have heard that Mortifera didn't differ all that much from Celestia when "Vastiia ..." came out) that being in Celestia didn't allow him.

The music is powerful at times and possesses a tragic majesty. If the vocals were clean and not so distant in the mix, the album could have appealed to a Gothic rock / pop audience at the time of its release. The standard of playing is consistent but there's not a great deal that can be called inspired or great. Funnily there's not that much of a creepy atmosphere in spite of the album sleeve proclaiming that the music had been recorded in a "deep cold cave" somewhere in southern France. If that's not pretentiously Gothic, I'll gnash my fake vampire teeth into a sodden pulp.

The original version of this review appeared in The Sound Projector (Issue 14, 2005 - 2006) which is now out of print.

I’ve always been weary of romantic art. Whether its film, literature or music, the romantic genre has to be very unique in order to appeal to me and the idea of enjoying a romanticised music entity is almost unthinkable to me. I’m a lover of all things dark and depressive, especially when it comes to the various art forms. Even elements of art like paintings, or photography, they have to consist of dark themes in order to appeal to me unless they have an outstanding element of natural beauty that deserves praise regardless. When I came across Alcest for the first time with ‘Le Secret’, the idea of enjoying romantic music didn’t seem like such an odd idea after all. Though I do consider Mortifera to have some of that romantic idealisation within their structures, the band seems to enjoy enabling contrasting sounds to work together in harmony to astounding affects. Obviously, the sound of the band is inspired heavily by Neige. The vocals, the guitars, almost everything about the projection, today at least, screams Neige influence. The man has his fingers in many pies, but before he became a figurehead of lush black metal, his ideas were something of a novelty amongst black metal circles.

Given the fact that the French are known for being romantic people, living in a romanticised country, bands like this probably shouldn’t surprise outsiders, but they do. Its not often that black metal and romance are associated unless we’re discussing older generations of black metal and how they themselves are romantically idealised by fans for being somewhat better than they were. There is an irony that exists within Mortifera’s projection however and that is because the band, apparently, considers their music to be a form of depressive black metal and whilst I can buy into this to some degree, I wouldn’t necessarily associate it with the majority of depressive bands as Mortifera’s sound is in stark contrast to the vast amounts of bands that exist within this overused sub-genre. Elements of the guitar work definitely fit the bill for depressive black metal, but there is enough variation within the soundscapes, a la ‘Epologue D'une Existence De Cyrssthal’, to suggest that there is a lot more to this band than initially meets the eye. ‘Vastiia Tenebrd Mortifera’, the debut and only full-length record from the band who are now on hold for the foreseeable future, is a piece that defies the depressive restraints and seemingly takes influence from elsewhere in its attempt to rid the scene of cries of repetition and a lack of creativity.

Even the instrumental song, ‘Epologue D'une Existence De Cyrssthal’, suggests that Mortifera could have gone on to be one of the leading bands within this field if they had stuck around and if Neige had stayed on. This acoustically driven instrumental song is as lush as black metal gets though, strictly, it wouldn’t fall into the black metal category if it were not on the record as it takes influence from neo-folk music. Elements like this remind me, somewhat, of early Ulver records when they meshed black metal and acoustic folk together to fulfill a purpose of divinity. Its in songs like this that gives Mortifera a wide range of comparisons. People have likened the beauty of this song, and the rest of the music, to bands like Opeth and again, Ulver’s early works and this is an indication of how wonderful black metal can become when you attach an edge to it that doesn’t necessarily seem to fit with its harsh remnants in the grand scheme of things. When it comes to the best songs on the record, ‘La Revenant’ and ‘Ciel Brouille’, the Alcest method of shoegaze meets black metal on the epically tragic romantic tale of ‘Le Secret’ becomes clear once again.

Unfortunately, though these aforementioned songs may be amongst the best that depressive black metal has to offer, given the Neige influence on proceedings (its difficult to escape his influence on this bands sound), there are moments when the transition from the Alcest driven soundscapes, towards a depressive black metal conclusion are lost in the haze of the shoegazing guitars as they monotonously overpower the other elements. These elements include the unusual whispered vocals that offer only a small impact upon the melancholic melodies of the instrumentation and the uninspiring guitar work on efforts like ‘Abstrbve Negabvtiyon Rebssurectyion’. The record even ends with a Celestia cover, which seems rather pointless given the associations and ties to the band that Mortifera has. If they were ever going to include covers on future records, if there are any, I would hope that these songs would come from bands that aren’t associated to this one as then would we have more of an indication as to how solidly Mortifera’s musicianship can be given the fact that they would be operating out of their comfort zone. Despite the worthlessness of some minor moments, the record operates tirelessly within brilliant structures that are reminiscent to ‘Le Secret’ on songs like the lavish and luscious ‘La Revenant’ where Neige’s vocals are at their best once again with his distinctive screams of desolation amidst striking beauty. With a perfectly attuned production style, the clean and harsh elements of this majestic piece make this an instant hit.

This album was recommended to me off of the internet, and I had given Leviathan a listing for recommendations and when they listed this band under "melancholic French style" I was expecting a Leviathan clone, but French.

Boy, was I sadly mistaken.

This album is misery defined into music. Nukto's howls of despair and agony are intense and insane to say the least. Now, before I start on Nukto's mastery, I'll just go into the whole review...

Firstly, the only con is maybe the faulty drum sound every very once and awhile, and the lack of the beautiful clean breaks.

Now...for the pros of the album. This album proves to be nothing short of genius. This album represents what depressive black metal can sound like, unlike Leviathan's mix of ambient music (which is very awesome as well) Mortifera have a very obvious sound. Slow, doomy, with various blast-away parts, but doomy and melancholic mostly throughout. The clean guitar tone is much more sophisticated than the usual black metal tone they have, which is excellent as well. The albums guitar tracks are nothing short of agonized despair formed into a sound bit. Nukto either has a knack for sorrowful tunes, or he spent days working on each riff. Hopefully the first, but hey. Now, the bass. Normally, for a black metal release, I'd say inaudible but the bass on Vastiia Tenebrd Mortifera is clear as day. And, the best part is it's very excellent work as well. Reminds of a certain Judas Iscariot, only more refined and less blasty. The drums, while we're on that bit, are excellent indeed. Nothing short of redefining what a black metal drummer should be able to do. Mix interesting beats, fills, and rides with blasting and double bass reliance.

Now, onto the obvious point of agony, fear, despair, and intensity: The vocals. Nukto is, in my book, one of the greatest black metal vocalists I've heard in a LONG time. His intensley high-pitched rasp is deadly fierce and occaisionally he gets to falsetto range intensities and just rapes your ear, for the better. He is not high pitched and annoying in the Dani Filth sense, but is raw, savage and crazy as hell in his wailing and screeching. I cannot tell what the hell he's saying, but it's most likely depressing so I normally try and decipher it myself, which is fun with these kinds of intense vocals.

Alright, I will flat out say this as well: Epologue d'une Existence de Cyrssthal is the most beautiful thing I've ever heard come from a black metal guitarist, and almost a metal guitarist (Mikael Akerfeldt wins that with Requiem from the album, Orchid). The simplicity (well, in how slow it is, the chords aren't exactly power chords) and brooding tempo mixed with the occaisional progression of happiness and/or epic"ness" create an astounding track. The dark moments are counterbalanced with the beautiful moments, then again with the downtrodden, sorrowful lines. This track shows Leviathan up in their ambient category with Nukto's own creativity and beautiful musical ideas.

In short, this album is recommended to any fan of music with an emotive sound and even more so to people who love depressive metal. This album could also be for any black/doom/Beherit fans. This album stylistically paves a path for melodic/depressing black metal, in the same way Immortal forged a path for non-satanic Norwegian black metal bands, all those years ago. This album will crush your spirit and make you lie in a hole and/or ditch for several hours.

Favorite Songs: Can't really pick, but Epologue d'une Existence de Cyrssthal is definitely near the top. La Revenant is also brilliant. To put it in shortword; this album contains no bad songs, and no bad lines, and every song works off the other in a concept album style.

Favorite bits, though? Easily the doomy tremolo/chorded parts and the clean moments. Those are just beautiful and inspiring.

Easily one of the best black metal albums I've heard, and definitely the best French black metal release I've ever heard.

Mortifera is a French black metal band that is the former home of the Neige of Alcest and Amesoeurs fame. If you’ve heard of the band Celestia (another somewhat famous French black metal act), you probably have an idea of Mortifera’s music. This is not to say Mortifera is bad or anything, just not one of the most original black metal acts out there. This is what I thought before I actually gave it a good listen. Mortifera’s musical intensity out plays Celestia at it’s own game, and goes beyond the normal standards of your typical black metal album.

The opening track, Fbrahgments, begins with smooth, melodic guitar strums followed by some frantic drum lines that lead the guitar strums into a serious of vicious strikes at the guitar creating a very unique and off color guitar chug riff. The music then jumps into a more typical black metal standard of thick, distorted atmosphere and fast paced guitar riffs with the bass occasionally breathing through. The instrumental is a good intro into the album but not so much a solid track. Le Revenant breaks off the first track with a higher pitch guitar riff and some simple blast beats, followed by some of Neige’s powerful screeches. The song then tones down a tad bit as it hits the 50 second marker. The vocals are torn with agony (both emotionally and probably physically). The song then hits a breakdown of melodic strumming before jumping back into the fray of probably some of the ‘happiest’ black metal I’ve heard guitar wise. The song ends leaving you confused as to the true intentions of Mortifera’s music.

A Last Breath Before Extinction begins on a more steady pace. The song is less chaotic and probably for the better. The vocals are more controlled and the music feels a bit restrained (which can only be said when put into terms the chaotic nature of the previous track). The song’s end is rendered with beautiful guitar strumming and vocals that sound like the guy is dying by chocking on a rat. Very grim. Elegance sets in with Epilogue D'une Existence De Cryssthal with some slow, almost angelic guitar strums provide a gateway to the next track. Ciel Brouillé begins with an assault of more high pitch atmospheric guitar riffs followed by more of Neige’s fitting harsh vocals. The song has much more solid foundation to it then Le Revenant, making it one of the better tracks on the album. At certain parts during the instrumentals of the song, the music shows signs of shoegaze influence (think My Bloody Valentine) which adds more pleasure to the song’s orgasmic touch.

Abstrbve Negabvtiyon Rebssurectyion is probably the biggest heavy hitter on the album, with a more deeper guitar tone and powerful drum lines, the song meets a more standard black metal brutality. Neige’s voice fits well with the darker atmosphere, since before his presence added chill to the beauty of previous tracks. The song has some of the best guitar work on the album and it’s progressive nature makes it yet another dominate track in Mortifera’s arsenal. Aux Confins Des Tenebrss is another track shrouded in melodic beauty. The drums blend well with the melodic guitar strumming that overpowers the song with a calming essence. The music then bursts into a cry of anger as Neige takes over vocals and the guitar strumming turns to riffs. There are no lyrics to the track, just Neige breaking out some painstakingly high shrieks no mortal man could possibly do.

The final track, Fruits Of A Tragic End, is easily the weakest, being a Celestia cover. The song has more swing to it and follows a more typical black metal formula. Overall it’s subpar to the rest of the album (aside from a nice guitar riff that dominates the whole mid section of the song). So yes, if you’ve heard of Celestia, you probably know about Mortifera. Though Celestia came first, I can easily and gladly say (again) that Mortifera blows Celestia out of the water at their own game. Definitely a must have for Neige fans and black metal fans alike.

THIS WAS ORIGINALLY WRITTEN FOR SPUTNIKMUSIC.COM

I've never heard something of this band before I hold this release in my hand. Mortifera? Who is that? Oh I see...featuring a member of Celestia. That's a name I've heard before and it might stand for great black metal from the French land. I didn’t know anything, except that they should play depressive black metal.


Depressive black metal, this is the right categorization for this piece of music. From the first song to the last it let you think and feel about depression, agony and despair.
The songs are not very different to the others, but this isn't bad, because you have to see this release as one masterpiece and not as a bunch of black metal songs without any coherence. The riffs are like you might have heard similar before, on a lot of other black metal albums, but Mortifera play them in such a beautiful way that it could take you in an other world, because of this hypnotizing atmosphere made by the crying guitar sound and of course by the howling vocals, which sometimes make think you about an affinity to Burzum. And this, to sound like Burzum, is one of the greatest attitudes a black metal band can have. Yeah, i said the crying guitars: Sometimes, for example on the first and last track, they sound very strange. so halting an so "ugly". Not everybody likes it this way, so did I the first time, too. But when I heard it few times, I thought: How great, how despaired.
The dark atmosphere also is created by the drums, which have the most hypnotizing effect. The drums on "Vastiia Tenebrd Mortifera" are perfect drums for a black metal album. It's hard to describe, but if you hear it you know what I mean. Yeah, i really don't mean blasts, because they are just used sometimes and effective. Not like most black metal bands who destroy the atmosphere by blasting all over the world. What I mean is the dynamic and the feeling.


Like I told you, the album consists of eight tracks. A few of them are instrumentals. But not everyone of them are such great and beautiful like we might think when we talk about instrumentals on deprissive black metal albums. Except the intro-song are the instrumentals more boring than enthralling. But all the other songs are so great...sometimes you might hear some hopeful parts and then everything ends in total despair (like in "Ciel brouille", the highlight of this album).
So, France verified again, that they are on the top of the world in depressive black metal!

The debut album from Mortifera (featuring Noktu of, among others, Celestia and Drakkar Records) begins with acoustically picked guitars that sound very much like something we would hear on a Celestia record. It soon fades into a chugging guitar riff, which is easily the worst riff on the album. Not a great start then. Luckily it only plays briefly before sorrowful melodies and sombre chord progressions kick in. This is accompanied by fast drumming, which doesn’t feature much at all on this record. The first song feels clumsy and out of place, and apart from a great riff in the middle, and the acoustic intro, it’s not up to much, and the album as a whole would sound better had the opening track been left out altogether.

Luckily, the second track is fantastic, and the quality remains consistent from here until the near the end of the record (The final track, a Celestia cover, is not great). With the exception of one track, there’s not a great deal of variation, which makes a song-by-song description unnecessary.

The guitars are the most prominent instrument here. They are very distorted, and really dominate the mix. This is no bad thing, though, because the atmosphere they create is unfathomably dark and depressing, and bewitches the listener from start to finish. They have a similar tone to those on Mutiilation’s ‘Rattenkonig’, and they draw you into an abyss of self-loathing and misery in much the same way that that record does. The majority of the guitar work consists of chord progressions, but there is the occasional riff and acoustic breaks to keep things interesting.

The bass sound is very clean, and has a fair amount of high-range frequency to it, which means that it is usually quite discernable over the guitars. For the most part the bass line follows the guitars, but occasionally a counter progression compliments the riffs. This works exceptionally well, and is something I’d like to see a lot more of in future Mortifera recordings.

The drums are played perfectly, with well thought-out changes between high-hat and ride cymbal offering subtle variation between what might otherwise have been some overly repetitive sections. The beats are usually mid-paced, occasionally speeding up if required. Throughout the record there’s not a single poorly played beat, and the drummer is clearly a master at both playing and structuring his drum patterns.

Aside from the guitars, the real highlight here is Noktu’s vocals. Never has the man sounded more tortured and agonised, and the vicious misery he emits gives even Meyhna’ch’s vocals on ‘Remains…’ a run for their money. Except for the occasional rasp, he favours a high-pitched screech that sounds rough and raw, and full of suicidal emotion. I can’t stress enough the magnificence of these vocals. A vocalist can turn a mediocre band into something special, or he can drag a good band right down, but here Noktu lifts already melancholy music to the point of almost unbearable suffering. One of the screams he lets out on ‘Aux Conlins Des Tenebrss’ is possibly the most inhuman sound I’ve ever heard from a vocalist, and I could scarcely believe it came from a human throat. Incidentally, despite being the shortest and least ‘complete’ track on the album, it is also one of my favourites, for the combination of incredible vocals, mesmerising acoustic section, and haunting chord progressions.

I mentioned earlier that there was one track that did deserve special attention. This track is ‘Epilogue D’Une Existence De Cryssthal’, the acoustic guitar interlude, although to describe it as an interlude is to do it massive injustice; it’s very much a song in it’s own right. It is a very simple classical-style piece, obviously picked with both thumb and fingers simultaneously (as opposed to a plectrum/pick), because it makes excellent use of complimenting and harmonising notes. I single this track out because, quite simply, it’s breathtaking. It’s just a simple acoustic passage, but the actual notes being played sound like they were each plucked from the very depths of misery itself, and placed together to create something simultaneously serene and beautiful, but utterly despair-laden and sorrowful. Never before have I heard such perfect use of acoustic guitars in black metal.

As a whole, then, this is not a perfect album. The first song is awkward and mostly unnecessary. It’s a short album (about half an hour), so it would have been wiser to use ‘Epilogue…’ as an opening track rather than an interlude. The final song is also not up to the standard of the others, although it’s by no means bad (As a side note, this really dispels any claims that Mortifera are too similar to Celestia, because this track is a Celestia cover, and sounds out of place, and not up to the standard of the other tracks). The quality of the rest of the record, though, is of such staggering proportions that any of these minor flaws seem entirely trivial. This is genuinely one of the best albums that I’ve heard, and deserves the same praise afforded Mutiilation and Celestia for creating the bleakest, more sorrowful music possible.

A strictly limited and very essential release by Count Noktu & co.? "How rare". The band consists of only Celestia-members, and as I listened to this album, I was wondering why the HELL this wasn't released under the name of Celestia... This album even includes A CELESTIA COVER, for fuck's sake.

Right. Mortifera plays very melancholic, raw, yet melodic black metal. With song titles that can't be understood (or does "Abstrbve Negabvtiyon Rebssurectyion" make sense to you? Thought so). As I said, this sounds exactly like Celestia, but the overall tempo is much slower, and Noktu's screams are more high-pitched and they sound like VERY "broken" howling/shrieking on some songs. In a good way. The tempo stays mostly pretty low, occasional double bassdrum can be heard. Everything is mixed well, every instrument has it's place and they can be heard well. And still this album retains it's raw and dirty atmosphere...

The album consists of 6 songs + one acoustic interlude (it's fucking BEAUTIFUL!) and the Celestia-cover. The latter is a straight copy from Celestia, as you could presume, only the drumming is much slower, and that makes this version worse than the original. Some of the songs may sound tedious and boring at start, but if you care to listen to them longer than ten seconds, you will enjoy them. 74 may seem like a low score, but I still think that this recording is a masterpiece of it's own kind. The vocals are definitely one of the best I've ever heard, so full of agony and hate... The music is well played with beautiful slower parts in almost every song... But the fact that this is partially just old Celestia-like songwriting with a new band name, and that cover sucked, I can't give any more points than this. Buy this album while you can.

Highlights : Ebrahgments, Le Revenant, Epilogue D'une Existence De Cryssthal.