From Portugal comes the striking debut album of Serpentes, the new brainchild of A. Ara, best known as the guitarist of the enigmatic and elusive Angrenost. Released through the prestigious French label Norma Evangelium Diaboli—a name synonymous with uncompromising and boundary-pushing black metal—Serpentes is essentially a solo endeavor. Yet for this first offering, A. Ara is joined by members of Angrenost, Iceland’s Misþyrming, and the shadowy Svartþoka. That means a heavy infusion of Icelandic darkness burns through the Portuguese flame.
What we are presented with is nothing short of a masterful album, deeply rooted in the avant-garde realms of black metal. Serpentes moves in the same dissonant, labyrinthine corridors as Deathspell Omega, weaving sharp, contorted riffing with jarring rhythmic shifts and an almost theological gravity. Echoes of Blut Aus Nord also resonate, particularly in the alienating atmosphere and the seamless integration of ambient textures into the compositional fabric. This is not metal you passively consume—it’s an experience that slowly unravels you, seizes you by the throat, and refuses to let go.
For all its fury—blistering blast beats, spectral screams, and razor-edged guitar work—there’s a profound sense of restraint and space in Serpentes’ sound. Moments of bleak contemplation break through the chaos, with passages steeped in melancholic dark ambient and meditative calm. These contrasts only heighten the album’s tension, making it feel less like a collection of songs and more like a ritualistic journey through inner darkness, where destruction and reflection coexist in eerie harmony.
The production strikes a balance between clarity and suffocation—clear in its detail, yet oppressive in its overall atmosphere. Every instrument is granted its place, yet the totality is like a fog that tightens slowly around the listener. There is no escape, only surrender. Lyrically, as one might expect from a Norma Evangelium Diaboli release, the themes veer toward the metaphysical and spiritual: esotericism, estrangement, self-annihilation, and the transcendence of flesh.
With this debut, Serpentes firmly positions itself among the genre’s upper tier. This is no safe or derivative project, but an honest, deeply felt, and intensely personal artistic statement—one that challenges, overwhelms, and ultimately transforms its audience.
90/100
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