IN LINGUA MORTUA

In Lingua Mortua is a Norwegian black metal band led by Lars Fredrik Frøislie, a man better known for his contributions to the Scandinavian symphonic prog scene than anything traditionally grim or frostbitten. Although he may be considered to be something of an outsider given his status as a prog musician, Frøislie and company perform a fairly convincing take on Norwegian black metal here. The music is well-performed, but painfully typical of the modern Norwegian black metal scene. Despite some interesting steps attempted to set In Lingua Mortua's sound apart from their compatriots however, 'Bellowing Sea - Racked By Tempest' does not pass as being much more than a clone of the once- great Dimmu Borgir.

Although Norway may be best known in black metal for a string of controversial crimes and classic albums from the early 90's, the bleak sound of the black metal second wave has generally given way to something more polished, melodic, and less offensive to the masses. Although the merits and demerits of this evolution could be talked about for weeks, it's clear that the sound is no longer aimed towards being completely dark and obscure. Some bands- like Dimmu Borgir and Ihsahn- have prospered under these new conditions, releasing stuff that rivals, if not surpasses what they first did. Of course, there are now legions of copycat acts, and despite their talent, this is an unfortunate pigeonhole I fear In Lingua Mortua falls into with 'Bellowing Sea'. Like Dimmu Borgir, In Lingua plays a highly refined style of black metal that gets infused with the undertones of a symphonic orchestra. Although the orchestra itself is programmed, there are instruments playing in 'Bellowing Sea' that are quite irregular for black metal, including the saxophone, violin, and flute. For the short amounts in which these instruments are used, they contrast the heavier black metal elements quite nice, but they are used too scarcely to effectively change my view of the album.

Although a programmed orchestra can often range from being cheesy to downright terrible, the orchestrations here are rich and effective. Frøislie is evidently a veteran of the 'symphonic' sound, even regardless of his history with progressive acts White Willow and Wobbler. Although all of the seasonings show plenty of potential, it is the core black metal sound of In Lingua Mortua that feels a little lackluster. The music is played with precision and refinement, and there are plenty of synth arrangements to give the guitars a greater feeling of depth.Although a polished production is usually not an issue, here, the incredibly clear sound leaves little to the imagination, and while In Lingua Mortua has many of the things I love in black metal- eerie keyboards and guitar melodies, for example- the way they are tossed together screams emulation over innovation.

I certainly can't deny that In Lingua Mortua produce an interesting sound, seemingly influenced by a wide diversity of sources. Take some black metal, add some prog elements where you fuse moments of beauty with sheer intensity driven by ferocious blast beats. To that add some King Crimson and wild sax playing. Fuse this all together with some complex arrangements and excellent musicianship and you might get an idea of what In Lingua Mortua sound like.

Salon Des Refuses is a very interesting album. The ferocious riffing against the haunting mellotron (reminding me of Opeth) and sax certainly makes a captivating combination. Most of the Eleven tracks never sit still for too long moving through many parts. The myriad of changes is more remarkable when you consider that with the exception of a couple of tracks, the eight minute Like The Ocean and seven minute Cold Void Messiah, the rest average between three and five minutes. Yes they do fit a lot into these short pieces. This certainly keeps things interesting but a downside to this is it's often not very memorable and even after a few plays I find myself getting to the end and not really remembering much of what's gone on.

Overall though this is a fine album and In Lingua Mortua have injected something new into a genre that can often be repetitious. Am I glad I bought it? Well, I'll say yes. It's not an album that'll be regularly pulled off the shelves but I'll certainly be interested to see where this band goes in the future. Fans of the more extreme metal though who enjoy growl style vocals will find it worth a shot. If you're one of these people you need to hear In Lingua Mortua.

3.5 stars

"Emperor" gone progressive?

In Lingua Mortua boasts a sound not too dissimilar from Emperor (Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk era) and even Dimmu Borgir (Enthrone Darkness Triumphant era), but not as bombastic and with all those symphonic elements, and somewhat more ferocious. However, they do not settle for mere repetitive, unoriginal black metal, as I hear well structured composition and a progression within the tracks, developing the musical "story-line", coming up with more ideas as they go, making for an entertaining as well as an interesting listen. This could be described as a progressive form of black metal - maintaining its ferociousness, its raw power, the guitar riffs and vocal style, while adding the nuances of complexities to the song structure, varied instrumentation (sax, flute, keyboards of various kinds, violin, sound samples to complement the basic metal instrumentation) and an overall creativeness that is not always found in black metal bands (whether it be the old school raw BM or the symphonic black metal). However, I do feel they could have made more use of the "ammunition" that was at their disposal: more use of the sax, violin and flute among others. In their website it says that the music is inspired by "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."; I personally did not hear all of those in there (and I do like the description, but I feel that the album does not deliver that exactly) but I will say that the album is varied; broad in its scope and exciting.

Lars Fredrik Frøislie (keyboards, vocals, bass and samples; producer and engineer; music written by him and lyrics where not taken from Dante, Homer and Hammill) is varied in his musical output: He is also involved with prog rock band White Willow (which has now been put on hold) and black/folk metal band Asmegin (who's future is also unknown). This project he leads found him on the extreme metal side again (he composed this back in 1999-2000), combining the creativeness and sophistication of a progressive band (there's even a mellotron here!), and the ferocity, intensity and aggression of the extreme metal camp (though the latter is the dominant characteristic here, the main order of the day).

The album is quite dense, rich in sound, and given this and the length of the tracks, at the end of the album I feel as if I finished a long tiring journey, but an enjoyable one. If you fancy listening to a black metal release, but not of the bland unimaginative kind; with many intricacies, complexities, interesting shifts and rich sound, then this album should quench you thirst.