‘The Black Opera’ with expanded title ‘Simphoniae Misteriorum in Laudem Tenebrarum’ was Italian band Opera IX third album, originally released on Avantgarde Music in 2000. It was the last release to feature singer Cadaveria before she went on to form self named band who would bounce back with ‘The Shadows Madame’ a couple of years later. This firmly expands upon the pagan black magick of previous albums, the fantastic ‘The Call Of The Woods’ and ‘Sacro Culto,’ presenting as the title suggests an opus of dark operatic and spellbinding occultism.
Divided into 6 acts with an added bonus, the album runs at 51 minutes and has fairly lengthy numbers although not quite as long as those on its predecessors. Perhaps Cadaveria was looking at a more compact form of song-writing, one that she certainly went on to develop in later years. At first sultry ‘Act I – The First Seal’ develops into a raspy vocal assault burgeoned by thick heavyset drumming and jagged guitar riffs. The vocals quickly reach high witchy peaks thrust upon the listener almost as though spells are being hurled at them. Keyboards are also present after a while lurking sinisterly in the background and ominously conjuring up further mischief.
I guess Opera IX never really comfortably sat with the ‘black metal’ tag they were lumped in with on their early albums. The pace at full flurry is certainly violent enough and the keyboard sound shares much in common with early Cradle and Gehenna around the time of their First Seal. As ‘Act II - Beyond The Black Diamond Gates’ runs amok though it is the dark orchestral elements combined with the thematic of darkened black mysticism that really come to the fore and put this in a dimension of its own.
‘Act IV Congressus Cum Daemone’ is my favourite, possibly as I knew it well from being on a compilation in the past. This really is a sinister number with guitars chugging a bit like Rotting Christ and fevered vocals firing out incantations left right and centre. It is also meaty enough to demand head-banging action and has a baroque sounding keyboard section adding further dimensions to this 10 minute epic.
Having not actually looked at the track listing before giving this a first spin I was not expecting the bonus track but as the drums rolled in I recognised it straight away. I should have done too being a cover of one of my favourite songs Bauhaus ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead.’ By all rights this should not work with female vocals; hell, it should not work with anyone’s vocals except Pete Murphy, but somehow it does! Nothing further really needs to be said on that subject except if you have not heard the original, words fail me. As for Opera IX, I am very glad to finally have this in my collection and it is well worth checking out.
http://www.myspace.com/officialoperaix
http://www.operaix.it
http://www.myspace.com/cadaveriaband
