In the wise words of the bands bio "The music was inspired by a wide range of music – everything from Norwegian black metal of the 90’s to prog rock of the 70’s, to jazz of the 50’s, to folk, country, classical music, electronica/trip-hop to film music (film noir and horror in particular) and so on…". Basically, the recipe for something unlike you have ever heard before!In Lingua Mortua, a project of Lars Fredrik Frøislie, began it's formation back in '99, and has progressed into a collaboration of different musicians for the recording of the first album titled Bellowing Sea - Racked By Tempest, which was recorded during the summer of 2005 and released through Termo Records in June and July of 2006. Appearing on the album was Lars, of coarse, on keyboards, bass and vocals, Uruz on drums, Marius Glenn Olaussen playing guitars, Trondr Nefas on lead vocals, Raymond Håkenrud playing some additional guitar, Kristian Karl Hultgren on saxophone, Sareeta on the violin and finally Jonny Pedersen on the flute.
One of my favourites, the first full length song for the album, Awe and Terror comes in with all instruments blazing in an uproar of black metal riffs, blast beats and fast keyboard melodies and harmonised by synthesised orchestral sounds, with some added sound effects for that right kinda feel. Coming in at precisely 8 minutes 7 seconds, which is a decent length when it comes to a song these days. But it's not all blast beats and black metal though, with the band constantly going from loud crunching guitars to soft keyboard melodies and a kind of call and response between the two, back and forth. It really touches off nicely, and is refreshing to see a band actually daring to do something other than just bombard you with 8 minutes of constant blast beats and screams.
After a few more minutes of heaviness it goes into another soft number, boasting what sounds to be a synthesised bass stringed instrument, followed swiftly by some melodies on the guitar, eventually accompanied by more heavy crunching riffs. The song eventually finishes off with another soft melody, leaving me satisfied at least, and calling for more!
Mirage, begins with a build up of some form of indefinite sound before going right into on of the heaviest riffs you will hear on this album. This possibly is a band that doesn't like to delay much, as you will see when (if) you hear this song. With their usual guitar playing rhythms and keyboards playing some crazy from of melody over the top, it truly does sound amazing. Although this is a full on extreme song (with some quiet moments), it does have it's daring parts, particularly with the keyboard melodies over the top, at the 2 min mark Lars comes in with that real old school Swedish synthesizer sound (I compare it to Sweden as it reminds me of certain bands hailing from there, Sörskogen for example use the same sort of sound... others i cannot think of at the moment). The keyboards and guitars fit together very well on this record, with a lot of collaboration and mixing of parts. This song finally finishes with some awesome instrumental arrangement you might expect to hear in some old horror movie, before the keyboards introduce the beginning of the next song...
Relinquish, continues a more elaborate version of the keyboard melody from Mirage before an onslaught of loud heavy riffs and blast beat drums, and after another call and response between the two we get to hear something that, as much as it pains me to say it, a section that one may mistaken for a Cradle of Filth song (kill me, please), but luckily for In Lingua Mortua, they have talent, and it actually works well and sounds good!... so lets continue on. This number has what could be one of the most catchy guitar riffs you'll hear on this CD sofar. Seriously, it'll be stuck in my head for days. Another strong song for In Lingua Mortua, the same, yet different with the orchestral keyboards going along with the guitars, and still, something entirely different again. Not without it's quiet moment, the song suddenly falls into a silence, before going into another movie-like sequence of sounds to finish it off on. Think something along the lines of Alien. one may think it could have fit perfectly.
Lacus Somniorum, another Instrumental interlude, with thumping bass, horns and military-ish snare, although short, it's a decent interval and introduction for the one to come.
From Winsome to Bestial, classical synth instrumental start which is then adapted to the guitars, and followed by roaring blast beats. They adapt the same techniques, but again put another twist to it to make it sound completely different to the other songs, more of a metal version of a classical song, but not. The shortest of the heavier pieces, but hardly a failure. coming in at 5:07 it's still a great song, filled with everything you'd expect from In Lingua Mortua after hearing the first half of this epic album.
Now for their longest song sofar, Sowers of Discord. This song is different from the other songs on this album, not musically, but more they way it's played. It's one of the more experimental songs, in a sense, and the style changes a bit from the rest, with some very different sounds going on. This song is probably the hardest I found to get into, possibly because it uses a lot of repetition (only the good parts... which is the whole song basically :P) and changes so much as it goes on (so much that I won't go on about it in detail), but it is still an awesome addition to this already excellent album. This song ends with a kick arse keyboard melody that I cannot really describe to truly represent it's awesome-ness. But damn!
My favourite track, I reckon, the final on for this album, and the first In Lingua Mortua song I heard. The Melancholy Surge, starts off straight into the heavy tremolo picked riffs and goes down the black metal road for a few minutes, but then it hits a barrier and begins to veer off into the unknown as it takes a drastic turn... some very sweet sounding bass comes in with some synth stuff over it, sounding almost as if it were played reversed... but not. Then comes the saxophone, which I surely didn't expect to fit in such a song, but the strange thing is, it goes perfectly with it all. You wouldn't pick it really, this song is full of the unknown, the sorta stuff most people wouldn't put in a black metal song, but the band did it, and damn is it good. This song is a must hear for any open-minded metal fan, especially if you're after something different yet still kinda the same, this song has got it. A great way to end the album. Left me hanging for more.Overall, this album has to be one of the best and most original in my collection, as it goes from one direction to another almost flawlessly and with such precision. I can only imagine how awesome it would be to see these guys perform live, and I envy all who have, or will have witnessed them before me. It could just be because I'm a sucker for bands that can go from one direction, to another, then back without making you think "What the f**k is that s**t!?", but In Lingua Mortua has it, whatever 'it' is to you.
It took some dedication to get the album, as they are only signed to an indie label local to Norway, I had to go directly to the band to get the album sent to me, but in the end it was worth it. Hear them at their myspace, download more of them, or get more info on their Official Page and order them from Termo Records.
From what I understand after lurking on their websites for some time, is they expected to have two records out in 2007, but met all sorts of delays and a second album is due to be released fairly soon! Although when, is unsure.
This was my first album review! Hope you liked it.
www.inlinguamortua.com/about
www.myspace.com/inlinguamortua
www.myspace.com/termorecords
www.termorecords.com
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