Grima Morstua ‎"Finis Coronat Opvs" CD

The last epitaph – one of the most obscure acts ever written! Occult & mysticism transmuted into nothing but bestial disharmonic absolute chaos!

Finis Coronat Opus, a fitting title for the last album of a band : literally "the end crowns the work", traditionally attributed to Ovid. Their previous album is said to be better, although not having listened to it yet, I could not say anything else but ¨I doubt it could do better than this one¨, since I can only compare it to their quite generic debut album; man is this an improvement ! Had to get it from Bandcamp because the CD is not locally available anymore.
Musically speaking, this pulverizes their debut; this time around the musicians have developed a style of their very own. They still sound chaotic, but there are subtle hints at melody to the riffing that are very entertaining and pleasing. Vocalist Serpienev now sings in addition to just reciting the lyrics; I mean he now combines both styles, to great effect. Guitarist Ventriz Grimorium plays intricate riffs that go up and down scales instead of limiting himself to mere circular riffing. His guitar is fantastically panned across the stereo channels on some songs and he also recorded two different guitars -one on each channel- on others, resulting in a loud, agressive, exciting aural assault.
Special mention to bassist Inkiuvo for his trebly yet audible bass lines, which, when not following the melodic line of the guitar, counterpoints it and the drums tastefully to great effect. The guy is quite creative, an uncommon virtue on a genre that usually just throws these guys into an inaudible part of the final mix, playing inconsequential, inaudible lines
The song titles are enshrouded in philosophical misticism, and the lyrics are still recited/sung/howled in barely understandable Spanish, but hey; who can make out black metal lyrics without a lyric sheet, right ?
Now to the not so good, which prevented me from giving this hellish album the full 100% rating it would deserve : the production. The sound is dry, flat, with little dynamics; this time around the band decided to take a very radical raw approach to it, rolling off the two first octaves of the audio spectrum, resulting in a weak bottom end, and leaving guitar, vocals, and cymbals as the stars here. Cranking the bass control all the way up and equalizing the lacking first two bands reveal a great, pulsating rhythm section, heavy on the toms at the beginning of every song, and loud on the snare and kick drum as they develop. The result is to die for.
Soon I will get to review what fans consider their magna opus : Magma Mortem Trascendere. Hail this now defunct but unforgettable band !

Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...