### Lux Occulta: The mother and the enemy

#### 27/03/14 || Dinu

I got into Lux Occulta on a friend’s recommendation. They are an avant-garde metal quartet from Poland and damn are they awesome! They bring out all sorts of things out of their hat from accordion to electric guitar to acoustic guitars. They have elaborate arrangements with cool time signatures hidden beneath the fractals of music. They started in 1994 and have released five albums so far. Their sixth is Kolysanki coming out later this year.

“The Mother and The Enemy” was their fifth album and it came out in 2001. I heard it last year and it had a hauntingly beautiful effect on me. Lux Occulta were always unconventional and with this release they chuck their symphonics out of the window and serve up some of their bleakest songs. They added a lot of trip-hop interspersed with industrial noise on this full-length. “Breathe In”, the opening track is nasty and the drumming is maniacal. The layers add up on the second track “Mother Pandora”, and this song gave me an inkling that this might be the weirdest album I had ever listened to. “Architecture” runs for six minutes and is one of the best tracks from “The Mother and the Enemy”. Vocalist India Czajkowska’s voice is very beautiful and the trip hop grooves took me into one of my best trips ever.

The fourth track, “Most Arrogant Life Form”, goes on for a full 5 minutes and is very good. Lot of revamped heavy sounds, and riffs packed in. “Gambit” goes on for 7 minutes and its a guitar riff that rambles on with industrial noise and it was easily the weakest of the lot for me. “Pied Piper” is the kind of song that’s hard to classify. It’s music that falls into the cracks between genres. The sound has stayed with me over a year.

“Midnight Crisis” is black metal with some jazzy elements poured in and “Missa Solemnis” and “Breathe Out”, the final tracks on the album are very impressive. They stand out with the experimentation working really well and things falling into place. At the end of it all, you will be tempted to play the whole thing again. Heed that voice. This will be one of the best experiences ever.

- Information
- Released: 2001
- Label: Metal Mind, Maquiavel Music
- Website: Lux Occulta BandCamp
- Band
- Jaroslaw Szubrycht: vocals
- Jerzy Glod: keyboards
- Waclaw Kieltyka: lead guitar
- Peter: Rhythm guitar
- Marcin Rygiel: bass
- Kriss: drums
- India Czajkowska: vocals

- Tracklist
- 01. Breathe In
- 02. Mother Pandora
- 03. Architecture
- 04. Most Arrogant Life Form
- 05. Yet Another Armageddon
- 06. Gambit
- 07. Midnight Crisis
- 08. Pied Piper
- 09. Missa Solemnis
- 10. Breathe Out