Band:	Mistur
Album:	In Memoriam
Style:	Black metal, Viking folk metal
Release date:	April 2016

01. Downfall
02. Distant Peaks
03. Firstborn Son
04. Matriarch's Lament
05. The Sight
06. Tears Of Rememberance

Mistur excels at creating atmosphere. In Memoriam is lousy with layers of instrumentation that never cease building on each other, and the results are monstrous in scale.

The keyboards shift from texture to texture throughout the songs, setting Mistur in a different light with each new sound: sometimes an epic choral effect for symphonic black, other times thin, icy distortion in the style of Windir, and even, now and again, a more conventional organ sound that makes Mistur seem like a prog band. Flattering choices all, and matched by the versatility exhibited by the guitars. The songs often announce their arrival with an explosive flurry of tremolo-picked riffs of the blackest sort, but sometimes a guitar line mirrored a few octaves lower thickens the riffs into something heavier and more akin to death metal. Other times, the riffs become blocky and brutal, chugging into the station of a different genre. When one of the guitarists breaks away for an all-too-infrequent solo, the inspired flow of bright, carefully-chosen notes carries across the thick underbrush with a rare kind of instrumental heroism. "Tears Of Remembrance" features the greatest wealth of impressive leads and sends off the album with a bang.

Variety, then, is Mistur's watchword, and with all six songs stretching beyond the seven-minute mark, Mistur certainly has the time to spare in building up dense soundscapes. A multitude of guitar lines create seamless transitions between subtle riffs, and with the keyboards always on deck to provide more sweeping backgrounds, In Memoriam maintains a bold, unwavering presence from start to finish. The crushing melodeath breakdown in "Firstborn Son," matched by another fantastic journey through Mistur's heaviest side in "The Sight," feels like a far cry from the neoclassical elements in "Matriarch's Lament" or the piano-and-thrash tug-of-war in "Tears Of Remembrance," but familiar swaths of black metal tie the whole thing together.

Well, variety blesses Mistur stylistically, at least; the songs themselves sometimes get lost in the endless seas of layered instruments. Many of the black metal passages feel indistinguishable from each other, and while the two opening tracks make a strong first impression with mesmerizing hooks and growls of just the right caliber, much of the following material blends together into a big cauldron of noise. Beautiful noise, technically impressive and heavily-layered noise, but noise that struggles to be memorable or find a distinct personality. I will add, however, that the nigh-imperceptible fade-out of the lead guitar at the end of "Matriarch's Lament" is one of those tiny but brilliant touches of musical wisdom that you always look forward to upon every listen.

In Memoriam is an album that ultimately doesn't have an overage of substance, but is played with such style and conviction that it feels like it's bursting at the seams with new ideas. Truth be told, sometimes that's enough, and though In Memoriam isn't as bamboozlingly great as it appears to be at initial inspection, the technical proficiency and comfortable flow of atmospheres make Mistur an interesting band to listen to, and there's no denying the sheer force of In Memoriam.