Band:	Bull Of Apis Bull Of Bronze
Album:	The Fractal Ouroboros
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	December 2023

01. Trophy
02. A History Of Cages And Broken Bones
03. Suffocate O Earthen Lungs; They Now Lungs Of Ash
04. Annihilation
05. Liberation Ritual
06. Our Overt Apocalypse
07. Ekstasis, Enstasis, And The Fractal Ouroboros

They grow up so fast.

I’ve mentioned before that I absolutely love anticipating sophomore albums as a music reviewer. In many ways, the sophomore effort is the real test of a band’s mettle more than anything. It’s the ultimate demonstration of the question of whether or not a solid debut was simply a dumb luck fluke on the part of the band. Yeah, they got the check mark once. But can they do it again?

Well, in the case of Colorado’s Bull Of Apis Bull Of Bronze, let’s skip the cliffhangers and just definitively say that the answer is overwhelmingly a “Yes.” This powerful black metal trio first came through in 2019 with the Offerings Of Flesh And Gold debut, one of my favorites from that year and with some absolutely beautiful artwork to boot. I was drawn to the band by their name immediately, a direct reference to Egyptian mythology and the legendary bull who would carry the Sun on its head to Ptah at Memphis. But their music grabbed me even more. Within Offerings were three thick slabs of dense, whirling ambient black metal, that, most noticeably, took its time with a great sense of pacing between the ambiance and the more raging black metal sound.

Before jamming it in full, two things about follow up album The Fractal Ouroboros caught my attention. First, Bull Of Apis Bull Of Bronze are going from three tracks on their debut to seven here. Secondly, the runtime is about a half hour longer, being 75 minutes compared to the debut’s 47. These are both factors that could have served to make the music a lot more lethargic and feel as though it’s overstaying its welcome. But this is simply not the case. Once again, Bull Of Apis Bull Of Bronze have risen to the task and delivered quite triumphantly. The Fractal Ouroboros does not see them changing the formula from the debut too noticeably, but if anything it simply feels more refined and harder hitting, and the band have clearly demonstrated that longer runtime certainly does NOT translate to them getting boring or running out of ideas. If anything, here they demonstrate far more comfort with slower tempos (“A History Of Cages And Broken Bones”), clean vocals ("Annihilation"), as well as pacing between the ambiance and the black metal (the colossal opener “Trophy” is as strong a testament as any).

If you jam the two back to back, it becomes clear that there is a noticeable production improvement from Offerings Of Flesh And Blood to The Fractal Ouroboros as well. The former, while still a pretty good effort, was noticeably meaty on the production. Very heavy bass, the typical razor – thin black metal tone that’s heavy on the treble, but it was almost too thin at some points. In short, a bit of a “wall of sound” approach, which is often better for doom and sludge than it is for black metal. The Fractal Ouroboros, however, clears this issue (which was pretty minor to begin with, honestly) right on up. Things are more spacious and definitely better mastered here. If any one instrument improved the most, it’s definitely the drums. They are far more pronounced in the mix, and this is indeed a real blessing for the listeners who enjoy attentive focus on every instrument, as drummer Yaeth is no joke on the kit whatsoever.

In short, The Fractal Ouroboros is a definite capitalization and even improvement upon Offerings Of Flesh And Blood for Bull Of Apis Bull Of Bronze. The margin of improvement may be slight… if we’re talking ratings, we’re really going from about an 8.0 album with the debut to possibly an 8.5 one here. But as MS – ers know with our system… when we go into the higher score range, those little decimal points of error actually make a huge difference. This album is a come up for this power – hungry black metal trio for sure, and quite a tasty year end treat in the international metal scene in general. This is likely one of the strongest of the year from a band 5 years or younger. You would be unwise to allow the upcoming calendar shift to make you miss it!