After a long wait due to this pandemic, finally available Noctis Invocat, considered a percursor of Atmospheric Black / Doom metal from Guatemala in a reissue of its long duration in cassette format limited to 100 numbered copies.
Atmospheric Doom / Black Metal, great debut album 1998
The only (if I recall correctly) record from Guatemala in my collection is a strange one- Noctis Invocat's 'Depressiva Vox Clamantis', released in 1998, might be one of the earliest and most fully realized black/doom releases in metal history. Certainly, other doom bands before this had flirted with it, but Noctis Invocat goes for the jugular: corpsepaint, blast beats, everything from black metal is included alongside the doom. Of course, doom styles always have a strange early period before the style coalesces itself, so 'Depressiva Vox Clamantis' definitely sounds like nothing out there in the metal scene today- this is a dead-end style that wouldn't see it to the end of the millennium, but it's fascinating to see this so far down the road from it.
Against all expectations, what this album really reminds me of is Nokturnal Mortum's 'Twilightfall'. Both releases have a perplexing combination of genres present, but seem to, when it comes to a songwriting standpoint, come from a very '80s or even '70s prog rock space. Another good point of reference would be if one were to replace the death metal found on 'As The Flower Withers' with black metal- remember how offputting and strange that album is, with its sluggish, ugly riffs and rhythms? Noctis Invocat is a little more consonant than that, but this definitely at times comes from a similar mental space: amidst all the clean guitar work and frantic black metal passages are sections of plodding, ugly doom, livened only by the perplexing (and again, reminiscent of Nokturnal Mortum) synth presence that dots the album with simple melodies plucked on a cheap Casio keyboard. The synths rarely dominate the album- it's still very guitar-heavy, though occasionally they melodically drop from the forefront- but are a constant commentator to the music.
Noctis Invocat writes long, wandering songs (again like early My Dying Bride)- at least, the more overtly doomy ones are long and wandering. Instead of chopping up death metal and doom like on 'As The Flower Withers', Noctis Invocat takes a more segregationist approach, with oppressive, almost like a melodic Winter tracks placed in opposition with rickety, crazed black metal songs like 'Eternal Dreams Of Fire', which typically have a reduced synth presence and riffs that are surprisingly thrashy, reminding one of early Sodom at times. Odd other elements pop up- the female vocals on 'Mystique Spell', the bizarre, ultra-short interlude track- which really make this album a total curiosity in the metal scene. It seems, though, that unlike any of the previously mentioned bands, Noctis Invocat has a more defined rock influence, especially in the driving bass melodies which lead much of the more restrained passages of the music. It is definitely an odd album.
It's extremely odd, but is it good music? Well, I'd say it's rather hit or miss- like 'Twilightfall', the band does seem to be stumbling through a lot of it. Clearly the band is good enough to play the doom, but the faster, more overtly black metal passages clearly test their instrumental abilities, with somewhat jangling, inconsistent timing and a drum performance which is anything but steady. The band are clearly amateurs with big ambitions that get away from them sometimes- Noctis Invocat aren't very good at blending the more mellow and more ferocious elements together, so a lot of time there will be rather awkward transitions into almost ambient clean guitar passages before snapping back to the metal. Moreover, though the riffing and song structures are creative, they're typically not entirely pleasing, sounding undoubtedly dated since their origin in '98. It's definitely an interesting, varied release, but its time has passed in the metal scene.
I wouldn't say this is an essential, but it does seem to be a rather crucial, overlooked piece of history in the doom scene. Those who want to be historians should track this down- I'm not sure how much influence Noctis Invocat had outside of central America, but this is definitely a very interesting release from that scene which seems to reflect a sort of extinct idea of metal songwriting, and doom songwriting in particular. While it's not a release I would ever listen to frequently, this is worth a listen to those who like the plumb the depths of the underground for strange, unique sounds.
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