NEGATIVE PLANE - Et In Saecula Saeculorum 2LP

Negative Plane are wholly original, and transcend the very character of what black metal has been into something far beyond, without ever making it feel unlike black metal should. Directly comparing them to any other band is an insult to their originality, though the band claims to be influenced by Ved Buens Ende and Mortuary Drape, and there are perhaps four or five riffs on this album that merely give off those bands' vibes. Beyond that, their macabre inclusion of organ playing and chanting/ecclesiastical elements is a perfect tint to the atmosphere. Often writing lengthy compositions running near the eight or nine minute mark, Negative Plane mold a verdure of truly dark and seething malign character that oozes from within the magnificent guitar work at all times. These songs, compositionally, are quite complex and progressive by general metal standards (even if not especially difficult in technique.) Utilizing foreboding, dense, challenging linear songwriting that is expansive and scathing, Negative Plane's music is also extremely memorable, epic, and always somehow ringing with an abstract and unmatched sense of dark grandiosity. The stressing of certain notes, the mere note choice and unheard of fluctuation between consonance and dissonance, the placement of repetition - all these small elements are masterfully executed. The essential elements of black metal are certainly in place, but Negative Plane take the sinister moods and dark sounds of the genre and weave them into voids of riffs where an unmistakable combination of sophistication and primitive black metal character come together like nothing before. All in all, there's not much left to yammer on about. This is sheer monumental genius, and should be remembered for decades to come, as one of the most impressive creations of new millennium metal music.

Double black vinyl, gatefold cover, printed inner sleeve

Invictus Prod. 2022