### Abstrusa Unde: Introspection

#### 20/12/12 || Cobal

It’s been a long time since I last checked out a symphonic black metal release willingly. At some point and the same fucken way it’s happened to any sub-genre that goes trendy, it got boring. I can gladly report my expectations when getting acquainted with this one were low, and that might have helped it not to do that bad in my book.

What I found here is an interesting and balanced blending of modern black metal rifagge, keyboard playing that goes from stereotypical symphonic accompaniment to circus-like tunes, and beauty/beast vocal work. Perhaps these French’s greatest merit has been to thoroughly incorporate all elements into one homogeneous yet well varied final blend, that and also daring to include rhythms and melodies that you won’t find in all albums of this type. They call it experimentation, you know.

Not that they are reinventing or discovering anything, but hey, how often do you honestly come across something that can actually be called original?

8/10: Eight accurate symphonic cuts out of ten (in fact, they’re actually only eight).