Imber Luminis – Life as Burden

posted by Zamo on February 22, 2011

Imber Luminis were officially born in 2009, but mostly, they started their activity in 2006. Deha’s idea, the person who is behind this project, was to create a personal world, mixing slow, melodic metal with harsh and clean vocals.

Deha is also the person who is behind more projects, such as YHDARL (suicidal/funeral black/doom), MERDA MUNDI (black metal), SLOW (atmospheric “space” slow doom), etc. Eventually, Imber Luminis was also inspired from influences that were used in the other projects mentioned above.

The concept of Imber Luminis is simply a catharsis of feelings about life, death, sorrow, pain, suffering and true melancholy. A prime demonstration, named “Fletus“, was a concept of 39 minutes, released in autoproduction and for free in 2010. “Fletus” is a concept that can be classified easily in the sphere of atmospheric doom metal, an entirely atmospheric track, many passages of keys that amplify this state of mind, completed by rough, slow riffs, typical in doom metal.

The new release, “Life as Burden“, contains 4 long tracks, including a cover song of the too well known song “Sick of it all” by the band FINGER ELEVEN, completely done with IL’s touch.

The album doesn’t fully follow the idea of the concept entitled “Fletus” (an atmospheric album), the keys aren’t just as pronounced anymore, they appear periodically and only to create or to outline a harder atmosphere. Sometimes the keys are just short passages of classical piano, a thing that turns it into a trace of melancholy. ( this kind of passages can be found in the track “Life as Burden“).

The rhythm of the drums isn’t technical, it follows a line and they don’t really stand out through ruptures of rhythm. For a doom metal album, it’s supposed to be this way, a slow, steady rhythm without too much of a change; the best things are sometimes the simplest ones. Explosive passages would not fit into an album that should be regarded as melancholic, contemplative and depressive.

The riffs, hard, repetitive and slow are very similar to the ones used in “Fletus”. The thing that gives this album its authenticity are the vocal parts that were introduced. A combination of clean vocals ( In “Sick of it all“, for example ) and screams, very specific to depressive black metal. It’s a thing that you don’t encounter nearly as often, depressive black metal vocals and funeral doom, mixed.

All in all “Life as Burden” is a combination of low tones, rough riffs, authentic parts of funeral doom and melancholic sequences, lashed into a gloomy ambiance. This thing is mostly standing out in the last track of the album, “Suicidal Crisis” (great track) . It’s an album that takes your blackest thoughts out, an album that gives you suffering, pain and desperation, so that they’d reach the most obscure cells of one’s brain, it’s actually everything that couldn’t be said through “Fletus” : the dark part of our own feelings.