REVIEW ATRIUM NOCTIS "ATRIUM NOCTIS"

The Cologne dark / black symphonic metallers Atrium Noctis released a new self-titled album a few days ago, on which they have recorded nine new songs from the band's twenty-year history. Even though I am only familiar with the last studio album "Aeterni", sound samples of the older works prove that this is the most mature and professional work of the band to date. The whole thing was produced by Martin Buchwalter at Gernhart Studios in Troisdorf, where Destruction, Tankard and Accuser have already been refined. For the first time, the songs were recorded by three guitarists, and a special circumstance with the recordings was that no drummer was available shortly before the already booked studio date and the band had to record everything on click track. The drummer's recordings were then made afterwards over the otherwise already completely finished recordings.

This album is undoubtedly very ambitious, you notice that at first listen. Clear vocals, acoustic guitars, piano passages, the partly unorthodox use of keyboards, the use of oriental sounds, all this is very well realised. Listeners who appreciate just this playfulness and this wealth of details in metal are at the right address with Atrium Noctis.

Personally, I like the band best when they go straight ahead, especially the faster black metal passages, in combination with the keyboards, are often reminiscent of the good old Summoning. The interplay of black metal vocals and death metal growls is convincing. When Atrium Noctis show their heavier side, they often remind me of Agathodaimon or Cryptic Wintermoon and Penetralia (who still knows these bands today?). Just as I mention this, it occurs to me that the band could probably have attracted much more attention 20 -25 years ago.

As a conclusion, I have to say that the band is really striving for originality and variety, I personally like the faster, heavier parts by far the best, but this is of course due to my personal taste; in this regard, I would also advise the band to expand the heavier parts and to act a little less playful, although this of course seems to be a certain unique selling point of the band or their priority.

Either way, if you don't just listen to Darkthrone's "Transylvanian Hunger" , but also like melodic dark metal and bands such as Dimmu Borgir, Agathodaimon or the aforementioned Cryptic Wintermoon, you should definitely listen to Atrium Noctis’ latest work.