NOCTU - Gelidae Mortis Imago
Transcending Obscurity Records
Considering the present state of current events worldwide this guy is definitely jumping for joy. NOCTU is an Italian one man funeral doom project by multi-instrumentalist Noctu. He's been involved with a few other acts but for the past five years he's devoted much to his eponymous named act. He's also from the Lombardy region of Italy. Now if you keep in mind that his region of Italy was severely hit by the Wuhan virus. Then you can understand why I think this release should be the soundtrack of what they went through.
Gelidae Mortis Imago is the second full length by NOCTU. I'm familiar with the debut, Illuminandi - Esoterica illuminazione ermetica, from 2017. But this one here is a piece of beauty and brilliance. Pardon my lack of name dropping classic composers of the morose variety. But I believe Noctu has not only channeled the macabre as well as grandiose style of a classic composition. From the extreme metal side of things as far as the genre goes this is one of the greatest works you'll ever hear.
Obviously Gelidae Mortis Imago will not be for everyone. It's over an hour's worth of music separated into six tracks. There are basically three main compositions with some filler cuts. It's on these main compositions where Noctu's use of the musical elements fall into a morbid effect. The keyboards are used as melancholy melodic foreground to some point. Other times it's a ghastly horrific atmosphere being laid out. Even greater is when an eerie piano pings it's way upon your psyche.
As far as the guitars go, at times they strain under the weight of intense agony. Haunting riffs perpetuate while the tremolo picked ones lay waste to torturous obsessions. The capstone comes with Noctu's apparition whispered vocals. A tortured spirit he is not. Think more like the warnings and threats of a demi-god before it's conquest.
This release is all about three basic elements which are ambient, haunting and foreboding. There's just this amazing quality and affirmation to blast it as loudly as possible. It's a 2020 version of "Bring Out Your Dead". It's a cinematic soundtrack to our modern day plague minus the cable news theatrics and politicizing. It's Bach in a disguise, check out it's composer below. This release is also the most memorable, and not in a great way, the soundtrack of our time. Nuff Said.
https://tometal.com/
https://noctuitaly.bandcamp.com/album/gelidae-mortis-imago-atmospheric-doom-metal
https://www.facebook.com/noctu.funeral.doom/
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