Mysterium Coniunctionis opens with a short, slightly horrifying intro (no idea who created this piece) before bringing excellent material by two great acts, Italian five-piece Krowos and French quartet Malepeste. The stuff will be released via Minnesota-based Winter Solace Productions.
First band is Sicily’s Krowos (Frozen-d, Mescün-b [he left in mean time], Bheltregus-g, Tsade-v, and Imbris-g; these guys being formerly or currently involved with e.g. Arcanum Inferi, Valefar or Guru Of Darkness), formed in 2011 and highly appreciated for their contributions on splits with the likes of Anar, Mors Spei and Mystica Nox, yet especially for the album Enthroning Our End (Schattenkult Produktionen, 2013). They play a rather slow-paced form of melodic and melancholic so-called Depressive Black Metal with attention for the song structures and the rhythmic components, finally resulting in a chilly, almost uncomfortable atmosphere of despair and hate. The songs are based on repetitive riffs and icy screams (though I think these ones are somewhat silly from time to time), with a great rhythm section (drums and bass lines, for example, are just fine, and the leads are subtly intertwined throughout the oppressive and ominous compositions). And with ‘rather slow-paced’ (see higher), I do not refer to the whole part of this story. The Revelation Of The Vases, for example, is a very energetic, speed-up attack with a mostly thrashing edge of fury, much more related to the Second Wave-current than the Funeral / Suicidal / Melancholic scene, but it certainly fits to the concept by these Italians. 85/100
Malepeste are an Art Of Necromancy side-project, formed in 2010 in Lyon, France, and (on this split) consisting of vocalist Larsen, bass player Nostradamus, drummer Flexor, and guitarist Xahaal. They self-released the Dereliction full length in 2013, but I have no idea if they recorded / released anything else that was as ‘huge’. Their contribution on Mysterium Coniunctionis is an occult, mystic one, and if I didn’t know any better, I would have guessed this one was the Italy-based act out of the two contributors. Malepeste’s Black Metal is of a mostly eerie kind, pretty nihilistic and primitive (and that is not an insult, nor a negative statement, but a compliment). There is a specific haunting atmosphere that is both uncomfortable and suffocative, caused as well by elements like that terribly slow-pounding tempo and the grim, autumnal sound. These guys are full of superb ideas, but they can’t achieve all of them, I think. But I am not the one who will complain, for I truly adore this specific implementation. and this part of the split is truly a grow-experience, for each time I like the material more and more. Especially Lascivious Thoughts and Cosmic Crypt are nascent classics, performed with such persuasion and passion… 91/100