Swedish Art-Metal collective TERRA TENEBROSA return with daunting new EP V.I.T.R.I.O.L.

Stockholm based Epic Art-metal collective return with sequel to the phenomenal TUNNELS album, with two track EP designed to put terror deep in your heart, mind and soul. Prepare yourself for Aural experience unlike anything else.

Terra Tenebrosa kind of came from nowhere a few years ago to shock and regale with their debut recording THE TUNNELS, an epic, dense and macabre affair – full of haunting ambience and dread and a foreboding sense of terror. I found the debut to be amongst one of the best releases of the year, it was far from an easy listen however it dripped with delicate and intense musicianship and was thrilling from start to finish. V.I.T.RI.O.L (PURGIG THE TUNNELS) it’s follow up release and companion is a two track EP/mini-album that pushes the boundaries of what these kind of releases can and should be. It is a grand experiment in soundscape and atmosphere and plays with your very sense of music. Pushing itself deep into dark corners and pushing all the emotional buttons it can, it is a sprawling, layered sound bath, washing over and building on thematic motifs and full of seemingly Spoken-In-Tongues vocals that are indecipherable and eclectic, not to mention un-nerving and full of bile and bite. With only two track the almost 18 minute DRAINING THE WELL is a rollercoaster of mood and ambience that takes the bulk of the EP and follows the lead of THE TUNNELS into new and wild territory, Terra Tenebrosa main-man The Cuckoo has molded and created a cinematic and daunting recording that tests the listener to its limits with nearly five minutes of sound layering and atmospherical ambience exploding into a second act of orchestral metal and drum and synth lead noise terrorism. The second track APOKATASTASIS is a more lean and traditional song, which kicks from the stocks and leads us to a conclusion that is at once both jarring and whole needed after the rigors of the previous 17+ minutes. I am a fan of this band simply due to the fact they play by their own rules, they seem to have a knack of mixing music with atmosphere and play games with emotional reactions like Film can, and they create music akin to a 3 hour movie, cinematic, grand and over-pouring with inventive mayhem. This is a little corker of a release, more than holding its own against the 7 track debut album, and full of drip-fed teasing of what is to come in the future. It may not be to everyone liking, but fans of THE OCEAN, OPETH and MOGWAI (by ay of Dario Argento’s soundtracks) will love it. I cannot recommend highly enough. 8/10

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