Aquilus – ‘Bellum I’ (2021)
Rating: 7/10
Release: 3 December 2021
Label: Blood Music
The one man band Aquilius out of Melbourne was one of those bands which I discovered coincidentally some years ago via Bandcamp and I was totally overwhelmed by some tracks like “Nihil” and “Loss” of their first album “Griseus” released in 2011. Ten years later Aquilius released on the 03.12.2021 their second full length album “Bellum I” via Blood Music. The pure instrumental Intro “The Night Winds of Avila” already starts to build up a very melancholic mood until the first title “Into Wooden Hollows” drags you into more gloomy black metal and neo-classical soundscapes. The slow growls and icy screams of Mastermind “Waldorf” behind Aquilius are strengthening this atmosphere and the mid-tempo driven metal parts alternate with slower classical episodes. The track “Eternal Unrest” comes with its 13 minutes far too long to me. Even the big diversity of this track in switching between all the different genres (freezing black metal, neoclassical and folk inspired episodes) and the tempo-changes can not help at the end in making this song a little bit too montonous. “Moon Isabelle” is a pure instrumental neo-classical track which paves the way to the more accessable “The Silent Passing”. Even that this track is starting off as a chaotic Black Metal Inferno it is developing from minute 3 to one of the more melodic driven tracks with a great doomy guitar riff, ending in a great accustic guitar driven and choral ending. In my opinion the strongest track on this release. The atmospheric instrumental track “Embered Waters” comes for me more as a meaningless gap filler until “Lucille’s Gate” is bringing us back into pure Atmospheric Symphonic Black Metal fields. The long quiet symphonic and neo-classical title “Empyreal Nightsky” is closing this second full length record. For me this album has a lot of up and downs, but can’t connect with the strenght of its precursor “Griseus”. For sure “Bellum I” will delight the one or other Underground Symphonic/Neo-Classical Black Metal Fan and it is for sure worth to give it a listen!
Tracklist
- The Night Winds of Avila
- Into Wooded Hollows
- Eternal Unrest
- Moon Isabelline
- The Silent Passing
- Embered Waters
- Lucille’s Gate
- Empyreal Nightsky