Borgia Orgia

Speculum Mortis come from Italy and they are worthy successors of the weird but of high quality Italian Black Metal culture of the ‘90ies. The band was formed in 2002 and after many changes in its formation, now it consists of four members and has released two demos, one split and two full length albums. “Borgia Orgia” has been created and recorded in 2008 and fortunately even after five years they managed to release it in March of 2013. The album satisfies completely, both concerning the music, which the most important thing, but also concerning its size as it contains thirteen compositions, for of which are instrumental tracks, of an overall duration of about one hour. The music of Speculum Mortis in this album is quite complex, with influences and references to various genres, not only Metal.

It seems that the band has been influenced by every genre Metal and that can be seen throughout “Borgia Orgia”. The listener will come across references to the old Heavy Metal, Thrash passages, Mercyful Fate parts, beautiful solos, some slow Doom parts, references to the Italian Black Metal of the ’90ies while the references to the Scandinavian’s scene Black Metal are also a lot, whereas in their instrumental tracks they put out their influences by the medieval music. All those influences are put together nicely in the very interesting riffs that Speculum Mortis compose. Although that the tracks are long in duration (5 – 7 minutes each), the band has done so good job concerning the composing of the riffs and the structures of the tracks that the album really flows very fast and keeps the listeners attention throughout the entire album.

I believe that in order a band to compose so interesting music, the musicians that compose it have to be experienced and have deep knowledge of their instruments. I think, that is exactly what is going on here. The guitars have a clean sound, they are played with accuracy and passion, putting out all the feelings and the images that the music creates. The bass is clearly audible, it has very interesting lines and fills the compositions perfectly, while the drums are technical, they deliver their interesting lines with variety in their playing style and perfect technic. The vocals have much variety concerning the performance of the lyrics and enough expressiveness. They are harsh Black Metal vocals which in a lot of parts remind of Master’s Hammer, in others of Attila while in others Mortuary Drape. The production is clean and slightly bass. The mixture has balanced the sounds and the volumes of the instruments so well so as the sound that comes out, is massive and powerful. The lyrics have historical subject and they refer to the most important members of the Borgia family, concerning their activities in 15th and 16th century and the influence that they had on the Italian society at the time. Unfortunately they are written in Italian.

By listening to “Borgia Orgia”, I really wander why there was not even one label to release this awesome album when it was recorded. The Italian Black Metal has become strong and releases like this one prove it. This album is very good by whichever aspect someone would examine it. Personally it satisfied me completely and every new listen satisfies me as the first one. Every Black Metal fan has to have this album in his collection. Buy it without thinking.