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Aquilus - Bellum I

Label: Blood Music
Format: Download
Released: 2021
Reviewed By: Jack Mangan
Rating: 8.5/10


You won’t “like” this.
That term just doesn’t apply to “Bellum I” from Aquilus; it’s too simple. You just might love this album. You may be fascinated or baffled or intrigued or enamored of it. . . or you may hear the guttural shrieking vox and be immediately turned off. Maybe the quiet, Reznor “Ghosts”-esque piano will lure you under, or maybe they’ll push you away. It’s hard to predict how you’ll react, whether you’ll love, hate, or want to write a doctoral study on “Bellum I;” I can only say that you won’t just like it. The album transcends simple classifications.

 


Aquilus is masterminded by Horace Rosenqvist. Aside from the contributions from a few session musicians, this thing in all of its monstrous enormity is entirely him. Horace is clearly possessed of an abundance of focus, drive, and brilliance.
“Bellum I” is 8 tracks that span for over an hour. Most of the individual songs are epic in length; they’re separated by pauses between songs, but feel all of a single monumental piece. The structures are like Lovecraftian Elders; their presence is felt, but they’re near impossible to define or chart out. Elements come and go, but Rosenqvist masters the flow of them with a composer’s assurance and grace. Synth strings, actual strings, heavy drums, dreamlike pianos, raspy Death Metal voices, flutes, operatic female vocals; across short spans of time, the music switches from channeling the likes of Graveworm, At the Gates, Opeth, Katatonia, nine inch nails, George Gershwin, and Dimmu Borgir to Hans Zimmer’s “Dune” score.
For me, I find it a treacherous joy and an effervescent challenge to wander through the songs of this Aquilus album. It’s a gloomy cavern of precipitous drops, dangers, sharp thorns, and its own beautiful interior luminescence. Very little sunlight, only somber moments of solitary candlelit quiet in between chambers of tormented power and tormented anguish of power. Good times!
The one piece that truly does drag the experience a bit for me is the DM vocals. They contrast with the dark orchestral depths of the rest of the music. I think that’s the point, but they’re off-putting to me, while I’m trying to immerse myself into the beauty of everything else going on. I’d also say that it all gets to be a bit much. It’s the kind of album that requires you to punch out for breaks.
My favorite parts are the parts that strive for the sublime and the lovely. Rosenqvists’ greatest among his strengths is his writing and playing on the piano. “Moon Isabelline” is just gorgeous. Breathtaking. Enchanting. “Embered Waters” is another moody, quiet instrumental - - this one without piano. Ominous and haunting AF. The Metal storms on the rest of the record add gravitas to these delicate sections, but I’m always happy to hear the piano’s return.
So if you’re looking for serious, thought-provoking, and at times beautiful, interspersed with rakings of harsh and brutal, then this is your album. If you want just one of the above elements, then I highly recommend checking it out. If you have a low tolerance for any of the above, then maybe look elsewhere.

 
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