By: Daniel Jackson
Album Type:
Full Length
Date Released:
17/05/2017
Label:
Code666 Records
In
short, ‘Tiberivs’ is fully realized and wonderfully executed. Any black metal
fans sleeping on this album are doing themselves a real disservice.
‘Tiberivs’ CD//LP//DD track listing:
1. Archaea, 41 B.C.
2. Nero (Divine Providence)
3. Casvs Belli
4. Bred For War
5. Loner
6. Germanicvs
7. First of Men
8. Damnatio Memoriae
9. For Centuries To Come
The Review:
When one sees the phrase
“atmospheric black metal”, more often than not you’re going to think of guitars
drenched in reverb, delay, or both. You might think of melancholy chords and
sweeping tremolo leads. To be more specific, you’re probably thinking of
something along the lines of early Alcest or Wolves in The Throne Room. With ‘Tiberivs’, Cult of Erinyes do their
best to widen that definition to include a bleaker darkness.
After “Archaea, 41 B.C.” sets the proper tone for what follows, “Nero” begins with the album’s first
true song. Here, the atmosphere is born of deep, dense, and droning guitar
work, as opposed to reverb saturation or sorrowful melodies. The result is an
expansive listening experience, complete with peaks and valleys, as the band
masterfully walks the line between giving their riffs time to sink in, and
becoming repetitive.
With all of the bellowing going on
from Corvus’ rhythm guitar and bass
work, Baron’s efforts on lead guitar
do a tremendous job of cutting through the murk. There is some jaw dropping
soloing going on here, not to mention how often it serves to bring longer
passages to an ascendant climax. If the album has any consistent compositional
theme, it’s that; paying off the building of atmospheric tension with lightning
rod guitar solos.
Another aspect of ‘Tiberivs’ that makes it so successful is
drummer Déhà’s smart choices when it
comes to beat selection. “Casvs Belli”
might be the best song to highlight this point. The main opening riff itself is
content to entrance the listener, but Déhà’s
continuous building upon his basic original beat does all of the heavy lifting
for building the song’s initial crescendo.
All of this translates into an album
that creates an evocative world, both beset with bleak atmosphere and alive
with life. Cult of Erinyes aren’t reinventing the
wheel, but they are presenting the wheel in a fresh and interesting way. They
strike a nice balance between genre orthodoxy and unique compositional choices,
as well as building mood and atmosphere without using those attributes to cover
up a lack of songwriting ability. In short, ‘Tiberivs’ is fully realized and wonderfully executed. Any black metal
fans sleeping on this album are doing themselves a real disservice.
Band info: Facebook
