Formed by and featuring Margaux Renaudin and Nordvargr architect Henrik Björkk, Anima Nostra are back with their second album, ‘Atraments’. As a piece of art, this album is immense as it brings together multiple different genres into something that generates an emotional reaction as much as it does a musical one. What we have here are elements of dark ambient, black metal, industrial, dirge and chant that create something that is powerful and awe-inspiring. This is music that is felt as much as it is heard, sonic soundscapes that appear to have little to do with accepted norms, with tribal drums creating an atmosphere all on their own, while the vocals are dark, deathly and demonic. Imagine a Satanic brotherhood who had their own abbey, with black robes and no visible faces, creating music to call for demons, then you may just get close to what this sounds like. This is frightening music, and some of the closest to The Axis of Perdition I have heard for some time.
This must be played on headphones, as it is the only way to get the full aural experience. I first listened to it without, and soon realised that I wasn’t hearing the whole picture, and it was only when I put them on that I realised the gravity of what was playing. In some ways, it does remind me of Goblin, but far darker and heavier than anything the Italian proggers have ever brought to the feast, but with a similar sense of disquiet and foreboding. This isn’t a style of music I am often presented with, and do find it somewhat hard to measure it in that sense, but I do know that this album brought out an emotional reaction from me, and isn’t that what great music is supposed to do? If you play this at night, in the dark, with headphones, then you may find that you only finish the album in daylight.
