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Ars Obscura is the latest offering from this Italian four piece act. What is the deal with this 6 tracks, 50+ minutes album? Black metal is the name of the game. Oh, nothing too fancy here; no keyboards or adventurous parts on this CD. On the other hand, that does not put this album on the rawer side either, but more something in between actually.

Imago Mortis plays good, to the point black metal, done with a good sound production and a little bit of wickedness on the side. Powerful riffing meets melodic arpeggios and tremolo picking leads. The wickedness mentioned before refers mostly to the rasps, which is done in their native tongue by the way. This always adds a nice touch of mysticism in the music. The whole album flows quite nicely, although there are some parts that are stretching out more than necessary. Many compositions last 8-9 minutes, besides the epic 12 minutes track "Ars Obscura". This song figures in my favorite compositions list, as well as "Summa Regina Mortorum". I really liked the doom-ish mood with the bells and distorted arpeggios of the epic song. The pace also alternates between moderate and fast there, a definite plus point for me.

If you're looking for a good, well done, efficient and uncomplicated black metal opus, Ars Obscura is right up your alley.