MARE COGNITUM

To say that the production is the best thing about the album may sound like damning with faint praise, but I honestly don't mean it that way. The thing about atmospheric black metal is that it's all about the atmosphere - the clue is rather in the subgenre name - and it's easy to underestimate how important production is to that, but this album really illustrates the difference a really artistically apt production aesthetic makes.

Every song here is a mini-epic rife with the tropes you'd typically hear from a progressive/atmospheric black metal project: long tremolo-picked passages, layered wall-of-sound instrumentation for that "vast" soundscape, and of course the harsh shrieks to top it all off. There's a remarkable sense of progression in these tracks despite the album's often long-winded nature, largely due to the fact that most of them come from a similar beginning. The majority of the tracks kick off with a familiar tremolo/blastbeat-driven base, and while that does make the intros a tad predictable, it allows Buczarski to use them as a launching pad to fly off in whatever direction he sees fit. Opener "Antaresian" opts to settle into what I could consider a "funeral waltz" using increasingly progressive 3/4 and 6/8 chugs before climaxing with a beautifully melancholic solo; meanwhile, "Frozen Star Divinization" is a long showcase of mesmerizing tremolo guitar harmonies, almost as if they're locked in a never-ending duel in the middle of a wintry tundra. "Luminous Accretion" is probably the most technical song on offer, constantly shifting tempos and riff patterns while giving the drums a serious workout; finally, "Ataraxia Tunnels" is probably the most traditionally black metal-oriented track here while maintaining the sense of atmosphere that defines the rest of the album.

"Terra Requiem", however, doesn't fit quite as nicely on a stylistic level? and that's because it's the best song on the record. Most of it is played at a snail's pace and really gets at the heart of this record's dark take on a cosmic sound. The tremolo harmonies and double bass drumming are still prevalent here, just used to color a more funereal and despair-filled picture. Everything comes together beautifully in the middle of the song, as the keyboards soar above the melodic guitar solo; it strikes a brilliant balance between awe and hopelessness that I haven't heard in quite some time. Speaking of the "picture", the lyrics of Solar Paroxysm are very appropriate to the music as well. It's your typical vaguely space-y imagery, but there are some pretty cool stanzas nonetheless. Whether or not you will enjoy Solar Paroxysm will probably depend on your tolerance for the familiar tropes Mare Cognitum often employs to flesh out his sound. It's true that nothing on this album breaks much new ground for atmospheric black metal, but the quality lies in how it's executed here. The songs, while often starting the same, eventually lead us to incredibly neat locales by the time they're done because of Buczarski's adventurousness with this well-worn genre. Solar Paroxysm is my first experience with Mare Cognitum, and it looks like I have one hell of a back catalogue ahead of me if this album's any indication.