ILLUM ADORA – …Of Serpentine Forces
- Posted on 18-07-2019
The German act named Illum Adora revels and specializes in old-school (or traditional, if you will) black metal that hearkens back to the second and third waves of said genre, which is to say that it is quite reminiscent of many of the early-to-mid-90s Norwegian releases that were spawned all those years ago.
"…Of Serpentine Forces" is suitably raw and accessible stuff but neither the most thrilling nor musically rewarding listen as the riffs and melodies are not altogether that strong or memorable. The album does have its moments ("Clashing of Swords" is a catchy and atmospheric cut while "Nihil Negativum" has a solid drive to it), but in the overall perspective, it simply fails to capture the imagination and it lacks truly strong and muscular compositions.
There is nothing wrong with the somewhat lo-fi production or the musicianship for that matter, but that does not change the fact that this 9-track ode to darkness is a mediocre and easily forgotten exercise in straightforward black metal. You can skip this one, folks.