Lost in Time: Aquilus – Griseus

Style: Progressive Atmospheric Black Metal, Classical, Folk (mixed vocals)
Review by: Zach
Country: Australia
Release date: 21 December, 2011

There’s a funny thing with albums that are considered “growers”. You really don’t know when an album you thought was just alright or outright hated is going to pop back into your life. If you told impatient little high school me that Griseus was going to be one of my favorite albums of all time, I would’ve laughed. After discovering it in 2014 from Metal Storm’s top 200, ranked higher than the almighty Altars of Madness, I thought I was about to witness the holy grail of symphonic metal.

And I hated it. It was like boring classical mixed with bits of mediocre black metal. Too soft! Where’s the blast beats?! Boooooring! So, naturally, I gave it the metaphorical finger and said I’d never listened to it again. But for some reason, I still kept it in my library. And every now and then, I’d stick it on, listen to it for a bit, and say once again, “Nah, not for me”.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I’m on a terribly rocky plane ride and trying my hardest to use music as a cure for my flight anxiety. But Colors II just ended and I don’t know what to put on next. And for some strange reason, I was drawn to this album again. Why the hell not? It’ll put me to sleep.

I was wrong. Oh, how I was wrong. 

Holy. Fucking. Shit. What in the everloving hell is this album? What did the one man behind Aquilus create here? This is beyond symphonic metal, because this is structured more like a soundtrack than metal songs. I feel like at this point, this is its own subgenre. But let’s not get too hung up on subgenres here. What does Griseus actually sound like?

It sounds like the unholy union of Opeth, Agalloch, and Chopin. You want more than that? This isn’t symphonic in the way you’d think, this is classical music served with a side of black metal. The way ‘Nihil’ begins makes you think otherwise, but once the 5-minute mark kicks in with that sweet Opethian acoustic riff, the song slowly transitions into something you’d hear at the quiet beginning of a Tim Burton movie.

The orchestration here has a place of its own. It’s not here to accompany the black metal parts all the time, it’s here to drive the song through movements. And it does that spectacularly. This is the only album in recent memory that I remember the symphonic parts just as easily as I do the metal parts. The entirety of ‘Loss’ will forever be etched in my brain, because that song is like a three act play in of itself. The amount of emotion poured into this music is like none I’ve ever seen.

You’d figure an album this grand in scope at a length like this would become exhausting, but I find this album strangely calming, despite it being technically extreme metal. I wasn’t even mad when ‘Night Bell’, the album’s colossal 17 minute closer, was eight minutes of piano and didn’t end in some heavy riff. I just wanted to experience it for the first time again. The way the songs are structured give so much room to get stuck in your brain cavities on repeated listens, and if there’s an album that rewards repeats, it’s Griseus.

So, here’s the part where I’d give recommended tracks. And, may the High Elders of Not 4/4 forgive me, I’m not going to do that. If this sounds like your cup of tea, I want you to get comfortable, close your eyes, and get lost in this album. Spare 80 minutes of your uninterrupted time to let all of Griseus sink in. Let your mind wander where the music does, and let it evoke whatever images it wants. Because I promise you, the journey is worth it.

Recommended tracks: See last paragraph
Recommended for fans of: Opeth, Ne Obliviscaris, Agalloch, Emperor, Debussy, Chopin, film soundtracks
You may also like: Dessiderium, Dordeduh, Caladan Brood

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Label: Blood Music – Bandcamp | Website | Facebook

Aquilus is:
– Waldorf (Everything)