Review: Vitam Aeternam – Revelations from the Mother Harlot

Style: avant-garde/prog/symphonic rock/metal (mixed vocals)
Review by: Andy
Country: Norway
Release date: 12 May, 2022

Abstruse symbolism, the Catholic Church, feminism, everything including the kitchen sink: These are all elements of Revelations of the Mother Harlot (RotMH) that only paint a tenth of the modern journey across the synthetic pantheon (the first line of the album’s Bandcamp blurb) picture. Norwegian collective Vitam Aeternam are clearly an esoteric entity despite laying all the pieces of the puzzle out on their bandcamp page–or rather what’s left of the pieces after a multidimensional god ate them and subsequently spit them out.

Somehow, the music itself isn’t the most confusing element despite stop-on-a-dime stylistic twists, a full boatload of vocal styles, and a seemingly disjointed narrative reflected by the songwriting. No, the Bandcamp blurb for the album is the single most perplexing thing I have ever read. But since I’m a music critic here, not a literary one, I’ll stick to the former. Quite frankly, I’m stumped as to where to go next, a problem Vitam Aeternam certainly did not experience as everything happens at once. Suddenly there are distorted whispers, now bursts of symphonies cut out briefly by organ. And that’s just in the three minute opener, “Veil of Isis.” If my prose feels scattered, it’s nowhere near as much as the album is, though, as longer tracks like “Sick and Pious” bounce from Arjen Lucassen (Ayreon) styled atmospheric guitar solos to accordion-filled baroque bridges to sickening chants of “we are worthy” drawing sonically from Lingua Ignota’s spiritual ecstasy vocal style… to what is going on in this album?? RotMH has some ease-of-listening drawbacks, but overall there is generally much more good than bad. 

For an album so cinematic in scope, RotMH is shockingly short, clocking in at just under forty minutes, yet across that scant runtime the breadth of musical exploration allows for the album to convey many of the emotional themes laid out by their Bandcamp blurb (sickness, fear, hope, horror, ecstasy, longing, and despair). These themes are expertly interwoven through musical reprisals, lyrical callbacks, and probably a dozen other hard-to-find symbols and metaphors. And though the album can be challenging to parse at first, the direction of the music makes more sense the deeper I dive, the many layers unfurling to reveal a symphonic prog rock/metal opera not too dissimilar to acts like Reign of the Architect or perhaps a less orchestral Les Chants du Hasard. To pull this off, the band employs some help from across the prog scene, most notably Diego Tejeda (ex-Haken) providing some keyboard soundscapes, Raphael Weinroth-Browne (Leprous, Musk Ox) playing cello on a few tracks, and Hasard (Les Chants du Hasard) orchestrating part of the epic track “Promethea.” This rotating door of star-studded guests further contributes to that cinematic rock opera feeling. 

I saved the highest profile guest for last, just like the band did: Einar Solberg (Leprous) sings on the album closer, “Finis Gloriae Mundi,” a positively bombastic piece. Reprising multiple themes from the rest of the album, Einar’s voice shines here, elevating the music to new heights with much less meandering; in fact, “Finis Gloriae Mundi” accomplishes as much as the previous longer tracks in a much more compact form. I would love to hear Vitam Aeternam explore slightly more focused and potent shorter songs while retaining what makes the band Vitam Aeternam. While the rest of the album is enjoyable, albeit confusing, “Finis Gloriae Mundi” will undoubtedly feature on my song of the year list come December. The blend of operatics by a prog metal legend and reprised epic symphonics sound absolutely phenomenal. With a tighter, more focused delivery, RotMH could have easily climbed high atop many album of the year lists, but as it is, the album is a proficient, exciting blend of unique songwriting and conceptual elements. Its Catholic theming provides a fantastic atmosphere, and while I’m not sure if it completely “reworked divinity” (another Bandcamp comment), the theme certainly comes through in the album’s overall sound. Once Vitam Aeternam puts the best of their diverse and hectic pieces together, they will make ripples in the prog scene, mark my words.

Recommended tracks:  Finis Gloriae Mundi, Sick and Pious, Promethea
Recommended for fans of: Devil Doll, Devin Townsend, Lingua Ignota
You may also like: Les Chants du Hasard, Reign of the Architect
Final verdict: 7/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Crime Records and We Låve Rock Music – Bandcamp | Website | Facebook

Vitam Aeternam is:
– Jake Rosenberg (Keyboards, Piano, Programming & Sampling)
– Râhoola (Vox, Choir, Keyboards, Piano, Orch., Sound Design, Additional Guitars & Bass)
– André Aaslie (Piano, Orchestration, Moog, Mellotron & Additional Guitars)
With:

– Bor Zuljan (Guitar on “Sick & Pious” and “Promethea”)
– Janez Hace (Bass on “Sick & Pious,” “Bardo Thodol,” “Promethea”)
– Alasdair Dunn (Drums on “Redemption” and “Promethea”)
– Bjørnar Erevik Nilsen (Back Vox on “Sick & Pious” and “Bardo Thodol”)
– Einar Solberg (Vox on “Fins Gloriae Mundi”)
– Hasard (Additional Orchestration on “Promethea”)
– Raphael Weinroth-Browne (Cello on “Sick & Pious,” “Bardo Thodol,” and “Promethea”)
– Diego Tejeida (Additional Keyboards & Sound Design on “Bardo Thodol”)
– Michael Bridge – (Accordion on “Sick & Pious”)
– Naoka Ohbayashi (Back Vox on “Bardo Thodol”)
– Liselotte Hegt (Back Vox on “Promethea”)
– Tjodalv (BM Drums on “Promethea”)
– Anders Faret Haave (BM Drums on “Promethea”)