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Sweden's Reverorum Ib Malacht play ambient Black Metal and De Mysteriis Dom Christi is their second full-length album. The title, an obvious spin on Mayhem's De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, and a lone interview in which one member of the band talks of his conversion to Catholicism give a pretty clear indication of the nature of the band's lyrics, not that you can understand a word. The vocals are either an undecipherable rasp far back in the mix or a droning chant, neither very appealing. Many of the tracks are "typical" Black Metal with inhumanly fast drums and an amorphous sort of music created by the apparent combination of several instruments (both members are multi-instrumentalists) where no single one stands out. For instance, both guys are listed on Metal-Archives as playing guitar but I'll be damned if I heard one anywhere on the album. Other tracks are filled with more ambient sounds and the aforementioned chants and are boring even when they don't last 7-plus minutes.

In the case of De Mysteriis Dom Christi "ambient" equals "dull" and "annoying." This isn't my favorite genre so maybe I'm jaded but I can't even begin to imagine what anyone would find enjoyable about Reverorum Ib Malacht's music.

Note: According to Metal-Archives, the format reviewed here is the CD version and the cassette and LP versions have different track listings and song titles. Information about this release is sparse and I can neither confirm nor refute the above information.