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Vesania: God the Lux
 A band that features members of Behemoth and Vader can't be all that subtle right? Well, Vensania is actually a symphonic black metal band originally created by Orion from Behemoth and Daray of Vader, years before they joined either of those two bands. The busy schedule they keep with both modern death metal acts has kept them from spending more time with Vesania, but they have certainly regrouped with a sense of purpose on their second release God the Lux. Their first CD on Napalm Records is a fast paced and powerful collection of orchestral laced black metal anthems, led by the searing vocals and crunchy guitars of Orion, stunning keyboards courtesy of Siegmar, the intricate drum work of Daray, and the bass grooves of Heinrich. Songs like the driving title track and "Rest in Pain" house some venomous and tortured vocals to go alongside the massive, industrial-like guitar tones, symphonic keyboards, and pulverizing rhythms, while songs like "Phosphorror", "Lumen Funescum", and "Lumen Clamosum" sound like a weird mix of Dimmu Borgir, Bjorknagar, and the prog-rock stylings of Tangerine Dream. The overall production is stellar-honestly, this is a really excellent sounding CD. My only real complaint of this CD is, why put a 26-minute track on the album ("Inlustra Nigror") where 25-minutes of it is silence? In reality there's less than 40 minutes of music here on God the Lux, and while much of it is very good I think the band could have given the listener a little more. Take out the epic bit of dead space, and the few keyboard-based soundscapes, and you basically have an EP's worth of music here. Still, it's definitely worth a listen for fans of strong symphonic black metal.
Track Listing
1) Rest in Pain
2) Posthuman Kind
3) Lumen Clamosum
4) God the Lux
5) Synchronoscheme
6) Phosphorror
7) Lumen Funescum
8) The Mystory
9) Fireclipse
10) Lumen Coruscum
11) Legions Are Me
12) Inlustra Nigror
Added: December 13th 2005
Reviewer: Pete Pardo
Score: 
Related Link: Vesania Website
Hits: 3519
Language: english
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Vesania: God the Lux
Posted by Murat Batmaz, SoT Staff Writer on 2005-12-13 13:55:27
My Score: 
With members from Poland's greatest extreme bands Vader and Behemoth, namely Orion on guitars and vocals and Daray on drums, Vesania's second album is a good example of symphonic black metal. Although more noticeable on their debut, their music is still undeniably influenced by Emperor, both in the way the keyboards are used and its almost mechanical production. Orion's vocals are more like death growls rather than screamed black metal shrieks though. He sounds a bit like Shagrath from Dimmu Borgir as he opts for a rough, gravelly delivery. And when the music is decorated with elaborate synth lines, as on "Fireclipse", marked by very heavy riffs, the comparisons are inevitable. Likewise, "Synchroscheme" features luscious keyboards contrasted by brutal vocals and an Emperor-like song pattern.
As much as Napalm Records may claim otherwise, Vesania isn't breaking new ground. However, they certainly are a good band in the way that they know songs can use all kinds of variation in rhythm and tempo. Rather than playing stupidly fast guitar licks and incessant double bass drums, drummer Daray certainly incorporates his death metal background in the mix with awesome cymbal hopping on the tremelo-picked "Rest in Pain", a song defined by a fierce rhythmic anchor, melodic breaks, and symphonic sounds. At the end of the song, however, Daray reaches his ultimate apex as his playing matches the speed of a steam engine. Aside from the blast beat-ridden drums, the guitar work alternates between slow, menacing riffage to ultra-heavy and crushing tones. Also, three out of twelve songs are interspersed between the tracks to help diversify God the Lux, as they are short instrumental pieces where keyboardist Siegmar from Hasperos lays down some delicate orchestration similar to the stuff heard on Limbonic Arts' records. He plays effect-laden passages of atmosphere with an added breadth to the sound. Gothic darkness, male and female voiceovers, a deliberately bad mix all unite in perfect harmony by the time the following song kicks in. "Phosphorror" opens up with sweet synth tones before it veers into Vesania's classic Emperor meets Dimmu Borgir trademark, but halfway through, the song is broken down into segments of orchestral soundscapes with easy shifts in harmony. This might be the most original thing on the album. One thing I can't understand is why they decided to put a 25-minute track as the album closer of which 24 minutes are total silence. If this was an attempt to create tension or atmosphere, I'm much of the opinion that Vesania should leave these kinds of things up to the gods like Ulver and Agalloch. Vesania is better off playing old school black metal with modern production and intricate instrumentation in my opinion.
Granted it's far from any Behemoth or Vader album, God the Lux is still a fine piece of work. With both bands' heavy touring and recording schedules, we should give both Orion and Daray credit as they still find the time to carry on with this project.
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