Maestus

I live near a body of water and I visit often to sit on the shore and feel the breeze and clear my head a bit. It is off the beaten path so there are no people to watch or to "Clean." There was once a dead fish there and he lie there for several days until a bird picked off its soft flesh from the sides and the eyes and it rotted.

I thought this was beautiful, scary, but beautiful. I realized that there is nothing else but nature and I felt well and whole.

Black Metal gives me the same feeling, the same reverence for the natural world. and its accidental order.

I don't care about about Satan, or misanthropy, or war,or evil, or corpsepaint,that is all secondary.

What matters is the feeling of natural peace, that's what makes black metal worth listening to.

Maestus, an ambient black metal band comprised of members of Arkhum and Weirding Way, captures nature in all his horrific beauty. The album is mostly built with neo-classical keyboard pieces with the occasional harsh black metal break. This creates an uncomfortable listen, bipolar and dissonant, but often beautiful.

This is a plus, generally, but it can lack cohesiveness

8/10

bandcamp: http://glossolaliarecords.bandcamp.com/album/scarlet-lakes