Aversio Humanitatis have surely conjured up some of the best black metal that you are going to come across this year. I wouldn’t call this album DSBM in any way even though both the music and lyrical matter are pretty bleak and somber. This EP would be better described as a rich piece of atmospheric black (and to some extent death) metal. The first thing to note as the EP commences with a fulmination is the wonderfully opulent production, which elevates the experience to another level, as the multifarious layers are revealed one by one. Because without the competent production, this album would boil down to being pretty generic Mgla worship.
This album is very reminiscent of Abigor’s Channeling the Quintessence of Satan for me, even though both the bands are as similar as Caveman Cult and Bathory. The similarity comes in the form of the approach these two bands take towards the composition of the substrata in the tracks. The guitars infesting the lower spectrums of the tracks are so spectacularly executed here, that sometime during my listens I found myself lost in what was transpiring underneath the surface rather than the riffs, which in no way is detrimental to the wonderful overall songwriting that the EP demonstrates. Even the bass guitar is pretty audible at times and does a surprisingly good job of adding to the stupendous atmosphere the EP creates. In more bleak black metal like this, it pretty much depends on how the band treats the interludes and/or the slower parts, and Aversio Humanitatis absolutely kill in that department. None of the handful of slowdowns in the songs either feel unnecessarily plodding or overstay their welcome, just an apt transition to usher in some very tasteful tempo changes as the band gracefully metamorphosis from blasty, crushing black death to plodding marches with massive riffs. The band is also very self-conscious in their writing as it seems, because I seldom felt that any part of the tracks were just fillers.
After I am done jerking off the production and the overall sound so much, I would like to point out a couple of issues that I had with this EP compared to the earlier work by the band. Although the production is this EP does a fantastic job of creating a very dissonant and chasmal ambience, it feels almost too polished, which works sometimes with black metal like this but is kind of a step down in immersion keeping in mind the much better ambience in their debut due to the rougher production. I didn’t find myself the least bored throughout the album which isn’t surprising because it is so masterfully crafted. I would recommend this EP without a second thought to anyone who is a fan of black metal. It paints an austere landscape using rich layered guitars and creates a wonderfully woeful atmosphere that can be channeled as effectively by very few.
Longing for the Untold is now available through Aversio Humanitatis’s Bandcamp page.