Intent.
Intent is the esoteric force, a passion to reach the desired and to obtain the
primordial essence. A common occurrence in black metal is the intent and
longing for the spiritual; the intent to grasp that which is not material; that
which is inconceivable. The spiritual craving is not to be met solely in art,
and to our occasion, music, but music has the ability to push the listener into
transcendence through the towering patterns of notes and the instrumentation of
parts that create an entity of conscious expression. Music can offer glimpses
of that, and if we generalize it, art can offer a window to the unattained. But
music is a product of material mechanisms and can, therefore, create only
experiences. The sound of notes placed in patterns that stir emotions,
thoughts, visualizations show only fragments, sparks of the immaterial that,
for a brief moment in time, collide and create meaning; a meaning that appeases
the hunger for the divine. Is this hunger evident in Luminiferous Aether; Yes it is.
“It
is not enough to conquer the soul. It is the beginning”. A lyric that sums up
the album in a few words. Luminiferous
Aether is the departure; the beginning of the exploration and a statement
of intent for the divine, coming from the heart of the sole member that appears
under the name Mare Cognitum, Jacob Buczarski. Every album is a step
further inside him that comes to us through the creation of music, and where Phobos Monolith and An Extraconscious Lucidity forged the
map of what is to be reached and what is to come, through beautiful melodies,
awe inspiring instrumentation and lyrics of wandering into the cosmos, Luminiferous Aether walks the same path
but speaks in cruel tongues. The battle has begun and the wanderer is no longer
innocent, nor is he a child. He is now a warrior that has to move beyond what
he holds dear. His sword are the lead melodies that spread into the blackness
of the void, the voice is the embodiment of despair and of hopelessness, the
drums are the pounding on the ground and the controller of pace, sometimes
holding the ambience of peace with sparse and gentle hits and other times
hitting with passion, anger and self-destructive wrath and the lyrics are the
written statement, found in ancient plaques, buried underneath mountainous
creations on planets yet undiscovered by humans. They speak of this fight, they
speak of this war, they speak of the eternal struggle of man to know God.
The
album is being built like a terrace mountain, with each terrace bringing us
closer to the chaos that is unraveling above. Us, the listeners, like pilgrims
and travelers, follow the path, ascending higher with each step while the music
that emanates from this mountain, becomes denser and thicker. It vibrates and
hits us with cosmic waves. It bursts into guitar melodies and swirling leads as
cosmic storms, while the priest in a trance screams of the collapse of time.
“Ignorantly striving higher
Higher to the serpent sun
Corrosive plagues afflicting
further
Ruminate the deluge of sin
Nothing can be questioned
And nothing can be seen
Corruption festers from within
Blinding with the warmest light
Lumination
Revealing rifts corroding in
the deep
Constellations
Burying the withered aeons of
the past”
Yet,
we know that the final terrace is meant to be conquered and so the journey
continues. The ascending is a self-immolating process and only those with the
intent to wither away may reach it. We came across our former selves on
occultated temporal dimensions, where time becomes our flesh and our flesh
became the vapor, the breath of surging death. The decision has been made and
the fourth song, “Occultated Temporal
Dimensions” is the result of this pure intent. It is the highest and most
brutal achievement of Mare Cognitum.
The
final terrace is calm, open, and wide, with a southing wind that plays with our
fingers and becomes the fabric of beautiful melodies. Guitars that speak of the
beauty of the divine, as we stand in awe. “The splendor here has no end” the
preacher says. “It is a pure creation. Lucid and unfettered, bearing the aether
wind, lifted into glorious chaos.”
Jacob has materialized everything
that was being expressed through his previous albums and Luminiferous Aether is his most complete, both in instrumentation and
lyrics, work, but also his most difficult to approach. It is a work of maturity,
which signals a new path.
Recommended
Track: Occultated Temporal Dimensions
Label:
I, Voidhanger Records
85/100
