Atra Vetosus - Undying Splendour - LP

Atra Vetosus, The Atmospheric / Melodic Black Metal band from Australia is back with their 3rd full length album after 3 years of silence. Their newest opus entitled: “Undying Splendour” is the follow up of their 2021 EP “Even the Dawn No Longer Brings Hope”.

Compared to the early works of the band, you can hear a solid change in style. Where the band used to lean towards the Melodic Black Metal genre, it is fair to say that since the release of Apricity in 2018 that the band has been evolving and slowly changed their musical direction towards the Atmospheric side of the Black Metal genre.

On their new album “Undying Splendour” you can hear that the band has not yet stopped with exploring their musical direction and have implemented more different genres to their music than ever before. The main ingredient is without a doubt Atmospheric Black Metal, however you’ll find some refreshing Post Metal parts or even some Sludge Metal influences combined with an underlaying tone of their old signature of Melodic guitar playing.

The music in general has a lot of fast-paced moments with shredding guitars and full blast beats on the drums. The basslines are nicely added and deliver the right punch but also nice melodies in the breaks where needed. The vocals are more harsh than on the previous records, but are nicely diversed with some clean singing here and there. The added synths and orchestral instruments create the needed distraction from all the fury and bring you together with the clean guitars into utter calmness.

Atra Vetosus managed to write a record that does not only sound, but feels like a complete journey from start till finish. There’s enough variety going on that keeps the record interesting without falling into slumber. All in All, a record that fans from the Atmospheric to Post and even Sludge Black Metal can appreciate till its fullest.