Review by Fernando on April 16, 2025.

I always come back to the avant-garde style of black metal, and of course, Deathspell Omega and Blut Aus Nord are the flagbearers of this style. They have influenced the next two decades of black metal bands to this day and counting. Through the premiere label of avant-garde and orthodox black metal, Norma Evangelium Diaboli, this new project is unveiled.

Serpentes is the brainchild of A.Ara of Angrenost, who alongside a cast of contributors that include his fellow Angrenost bassist Erdsaf, Misþyrming members D. G. and M. S., and Ólöf Rún Benediktsdóttir of Svartþoka, delivers Serpent Psalms. With such a cast of musicians, you can probably expect something truly off-the-wall and uncompromising, and you’d be completely right. The album opens with melancholic singing and ambiance, setting the mood of a barren coast and a darkening sky, before the guitars and vocals come crashing down.

Sonically, the album is in line with the projects of its mastermind and collaborators, but it’s truly a unique beast. The music oscillates between absolute brutality and discordant melodies, while maintaining a stark atmosphere of desolation from beginning to end. However, the record isn’t just a display of searing aggression; tracks 1, 3, 5-7 display elements of dark ambient where the band slows down and lets noise, synths and a sorrowful piano on the last track create both a sense reprieve but also of unease, that calm before the next crashing wave, and sure enough the band delivers that impact.

This is also an impressively musically adept record, as all the instruments not only sound amazing thanks to the production, but also the performances, the guitarwork in particular is a major highlight, the jagged riffs and stabs that are complemented by soaring yet dejected melodies and soloing are specially refreshing as the project takes black metal and distills it for maximum effort while bringing more unorthodox elements. The rest of the instrumentation is also astounding, as it’s pretty obvious that M. S. of Misþyrming and formerly of Svartidauði is on drums because not only is his drumming unmistakable, but it is a large part of how vicious and unrelenting the music is. The addition of synths and keys for ambiance, as stated before, is also masterfully used and implemented.

Serpentes is one of those projects where each individual part is essential but the sum of them as a whole is what truly makes it unique and special, and it is a most impressive debut that leaves a scorching mark that will be hard to top as the rest of this year unravels.

Rating: 10 out of 10