Terra - Mors Secunda

Terra are an atmospheric black metal trio from Cambridge, England, and this two track forty-minute-long release is their second album. This is mostly instrumental, with just a few unintelligible vocals here and there that are used for effect. According to the label, the band “create a unique and intense form of obscure music with dark, brooding bass lines and terrific elemental drumming creating an experience that ebbs, flows, leaps and soars through a panoply of emotions, textures and moods”. Personally, I believe the drums are too high in the mix, which makes it feel like a self-released album as opposed to something on the highly-regarded Code 666 label, and it feels as if the band is directionless and the reason that the songs are so long is that they actually don’t know when they have finished. This just doesn’t work for me, especially compared with other bands that are doing so much in this genre.