MARE COGNITUM — Luminiferous Aether (review)

MARE COGNITUM — Luminiferous Aether album cover

Album · 2016 · Atmospheric Black Metal

5/5 · 2016-09-12
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Following hot on the heels of Resonance: Crimson Void (2016), a split with Aureole, comes the fourth full-length album offering from the US one-man atmospheric black metal act Mare Cognitum, Luminiferous Aether (2016). The brainchild of one Jacob Buczarski, Mare Cognitum has by this point already made quite the lasting impression on me with its spacey styled black metal style, most especially with the previous full-length release, Phobos Monolith (2014).

Current trends in atmospheric black metal seem to be the extensive use of clean vocals and/or cleaner, post-rock and shoegaze styled guitar work, a style that has become known as blackgaze. You'll find none of this on Luminiferous Aether, which instead comes across as refreshing in the way that Jacob Buczarski is able to create something that remains atmospheric but also isn't afraid to crush listeners with both aggression and outright heaviness. When he plays a cleaner, lighter passage of music he makes it come across as rather brooding and ominous, a perfect reflection on the spacey themes.

The album is in fact kicked off in such a way with Heliacal Rising, a slowly building piece that gradually introduces more elements of Mare Cognitum's sound into the mix. A relaxing track by atmospheric black metal standards even once its gotten fully going, one that quiets down again before its end, but listeners shouldn't get complacent: there's an onslaught to follow starting with The First Point of Aries. This is not the first time that Jacob Buczarski has incorporated more aggressive guitar riffs into Mare Cognitum's music; even as early as the debut album The Sea Which Has Become Known (2011) his music has seemed to have a tendency to go above and beyond the norm for atmospheric black metal in this respect, but here he goes whole hog with the idea and the track isn't a one off. Heliacal Rising despite its near nine minute length feels like an introduction; this is the sound that Luminiferous Aether is all about and it's what gives the album identity from previous Mare Cognitum releases.

And yet that also doesn't even go half way to describing what this album sounds like. Jacob Buczarski's lead guitar playing dominants as well in the form of melodies while underneath it all some ambient aspects can be heard creeping through, contributing to, but not defining, the album's overall atmosphere. On top of the music Jacob Buczarski also provides a strong vocal performance. As is often the case with extreme metal bands I do have trouble discerning his lyrics, but his growling style complements the music so well that at the end of the day it matters little. Vocals are an additional instrument in music such as this.

As is usual for a Mare Cognitum album there are not many individual tracks on Luminiferous Aether, just five this time around, though all have fairly long durations of course. The First Point of Aries has the obvious benefit of wow factor when first listening to the album, but I think to my ears the album's crown jewel has to be Occultated Temporal Dimensions, though with that said this album deserves your rapt attention from start to finish. I say this as a massive fan of Phobos Monolith, but Luminiferous Aether is easily the best album of Mare Cognitum so far. It's sound is simply immense, something which the production job, also done by Jacob Buczarski, shows off well. Resonance: Crimson Void was a great split, but was merely a foretaste of what Mare Cognitum was capable of in 2016. Black metal album of 2016? It could well be.

more than 2 years ago
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TheHeavyMetalCat wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Hadn't realised this dropped a week earlier than planned. I'm going to listen right away!

666sharon666 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I'm only recently discovering Mare Cognitum and am regretting not checking it out sooner. Great review, this new one is brilliant. Not sure if I prefer this or Phobos Monolith yet; if there's a fault with this one it's that the first track really is quite a long slow start before it really hits you, but it really delivers after that. Might even be the one that knocks Blood Ceremony's latest off the top of my 2016 list.