Mord'A'Stigmata – Ansia (2013)

After their impressive 2011 “Antimatter” we had huge expectations from Mord’A’Stigmata’s latest release “Ansia”. Delivering a half-baked cake, this album features an interesting direction the band is taking, but it fails to completely blow us away like the previous one. Mixing in some Post-Metal/Black Metal elements into their weird Avant-garde BM core, the band seems to have the right idea but missed the point a bit (hell, maybe WE are the ones missing the point).

With “Inkaust” opening with furious strength, the song slowly transforms into a Post-Metal piece with a slow middle part and switches back again into BM mode. The band’s Post-Metal section is quite intesreting since it does not feel like straight Post-BM, but rather a hybrid of typical Neurosis-like Post-Metal with some BM riffing. Yeah, weird indeed but it feels rather odd, even after more than a few spins. Anyways, “Shattered Vertebrae of the Zodiac” comes back to a bit more familiar territories with the first few minutes being Black Metal with interesting Post-whatever percussions. The improvisational Post-Rock-ish interlude is quite interesting an unique, but it still didn’t really clicked with us.

“Pregressed” features a lead in that blends with the previous track and it slowly evolves into its own weirdness with more cohesive guitar structures and even craftier drum patterns. While being a bit straighter forward than the previous tracks, we still have a certain something alienating us a bit from the music. We have to say that the music is NOT BAD at all at any given point, but rather too unconventional that we can’t really seem to enjoy it the way it is presented.

The slower “Praefatio Pro Defunctis” feels a lot more accessible to us, as we completely enjoyed the lush build-up and atmosphere created in this track. The drumming again immediately stands out with excellent complexity and flawless execution. The song really gave us a Wolves In The Throne Room vibe, but with less intensity, it also nicely blends into the outro “Ansia”, putting an end to a very different release.

The more and more we listened to this, we still ended up at the same place in terms of personal enjoyment. While the music is perfectly crafted and the band’s style is very unique, it still left us feeling alienated with some tracks. Not being able to really nail down what didn’t really clicked with us is still a big concern in terms of describing the release. Overall, “Ansia” is a very well executed album that shows Mord’A’Stigmata’s evolution into a Wolves In The Throne Room-like entity but keeping their own weirdness intact. If you want to be challenged by a release that is very unique and different, look no further and spring a few bucks for it, it is totally worth it. As for us, we hope one day it really clicks and blows us away as the band’s previous effort.

Label: Pagan Records

Release: October 29th, 2013

Genre: Post-Black Metal / Avant-garde Black Metal

Country: Poland