Creating a drawn-out listen that pushes what it means to be a funeral doom act, or even just doom, is to become very familiar with your craft because you need to know how to make lengthy songs gripping for almost their entire length. Ten minutes is one thing, but double, triple, quadruple, or even more of that length is a challenge that even veterans have trouble with, without a doubt. So, when a relatively new act can make it look like nothing, that’s a sound and sight more than worth checking out. I had no idea we would be treated to such a display with Noctu’s upcoming opus, and it’d be an understatement to say this album doesn’t keep giving with each track.
If you know anything about me, you know damn well that I live for the underrated art of the stupidly long song because it’s truly like nothing else in the entirety of the music scene with multiple reasons as to why that’s the case. An Italian act that I’ve never heard of before delivering an album that’s half interludes but the shortest track is 16 minutes long that takes the funeral doom style to not only run with it but also pepper in a little extra flavor is by far nothing that I was expecting going into the crypts of “Gelidae Mortis Imago”, but I couldn’t have asked for anything better! While there’s little denying this is a variety of funeral doom, Noctu decides to put in a very prevalent and thick layer of black metal on top of the mix that adds a different flavor that could be akin to mourning or cries from the afterlife while even then putting in a classy sprinkling of synths to give a great atmosphere to the entire body of work that is “Gelidae Mortis Imago”. And, as you might imagine, this is far from anything that you could snap your fingers to on your way to work. This is very much an album that deserves a good pair of headphones, and the time to lean back and take it all in as Noctu takes you through the catacombs to gaze upon the lost souls that are contained therein, and it’s each track from the brief atmospheric interludes to the grandiose 32-minute finale that makes you feel as one with the lost souls you walk amongst throughout “Gelidae Mortis Imago”. Noctu brings it together with surprising excellence to make the whole of this album a sort of funeral doom that we don’t get often whatsoever, even less so than when we get funeral doom at all, and if this is something that Noctu can deliver on a constant basis then I will happily go exploring the dark graves of the world with the act anytime any day if the quality is even close to what we’re spoiled with throughout all of “Gelidae Mortis Imago”.
And here I thought the only funeral doom worth mentioning that we’d get this year is whatever the hell it is that Bell Witch is currently whipping up, but, clearly, I was mistaken and I couldn’t be any happier knowing that given the result is the macabre majesty that Noctu has brought forth. Pound for pound, “Gelidae Mortis Imago” proves itself to be an album not to be underestimated, and I cannot help but feel that this is just the start for this Italian act that we’ll definitely need to keep a close eye on.
“Gelidae Mortis Imago” releases on May 8th via Transcending Obscurity Records!
LISTENÂ to an advanced track from “Gelidae Mortis Imago” on Bandcamp here.
LIKEÂ Noctu on Facebook here.
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