Style: prog black metal, melodic black metal, atmospheric black metal, folk black metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Wolves in the Throne Room, Mare Cognitum
Review by: Andy
Country: Brazil
Release date: 17 November 2023
Just when I thought Caio Lemos was moving uncomfortably far away from metal, he releases Vestígios, possibly his most effective foray into (mostly) pure black metal yet. What haven’t I said about Lemos and his various projects (Kaatayra, Bríi, Vauruvã, Bakt, Rasha, and now Vestígio)? For four years straight, he has, like clockwork, released an experimental black metal album that shot to the top of my yearly list without any hype-building or announcements. He works at his own frightening pace and is clearly just one of the most inspired artists ever to exist with his quality to quantity ratio. Needless to say, I was expectant when I saw a three piece album with a different vocalist on each track.
Immediately, opener “Ausência” is fraught with horned orchestration, equally menacing and organic as it amorphously floats divorced from time. After about a minute of this ominous ambience, Lemos’s guitar screams to life in a triumphant riff not far afield from Kostnateni: In a short career built on a multitude of things, stunning riffs among them, Vestígios has a disproportionate amount of Lemos’s greatest yet. Across Vestígios, Lemos utilizes bass to create groove (5:20 in “Ausência”), long-form buildups to squeeze every ounce of creativity out of a riff (5:17 in “Segredo”), and clear climaxing with synth and guitar in harmony (7:30 in “Resquício”). I could call out dozens of stunning moments on this album, and for the first time on a Lemos album, they’re nearly unilaterally metal and not ingenious folk or electronica flourishes; in fact, those hardly even break through despite their influence tying the whole project together from its foundation.
Despite the polyphonic guitar parts, like all of Lemos’s projects that have come before, rhythm—not melody—drives the album, allowing Vestígios to thrive on a fundamental, vitalistic pulse. Moreover, the underlying rhythmic principles are still inclusive of folk and electronica. Brilliant flourishes of Brazilian rhythm are injected into all but the most blast-beat heavy moments, and subtle moments of jungle trance rhythms occasionally propel the tracks without detracting from the metal—the changes are felt deep in the body. Moreover, his blast beats are simply unparalleled. Relentless yet always including sensible variations, Lemos’s drumming is beautiful and overwhelming (and also sounds perfect in the mix).
That eerie ambience I mentioned at the start of “Ausência” pops up again and also permeates the very pores of the album’s being. A strange tension between the linearity of riff-craft and the floating ambience begins the album and persists throughout. Listening to Vestígio is like sitting in a sensory deprivation tank; I’m filled with a lucid calm despite the violence of the black metal. Even the most blazing, Mare Cognitum-esque riffs Lemos can muster (such as the start of “Resquício”) are atmospheric and sublime, hearkening to the violence of the natural world more than human violence. I think that’s why Caio Lemos feels separate from metal even when composing something which cannot be called anything other than black metal with the limitation of genre.
Vestígio is a more immediately satisfying project than some of Lemos’s other opera, but I miss some of the experimentation of the other projects. I don’t turn on a Kaatayra or Bríi album to listen to straight black metal; as such, I think this album can be a tad underwhelming (only in relation to some of the best black metal of all time). Despite that, Vestígios holds a certain primitive truth and beauty that other metal simply lacks and is certainly a welcome addition to the collection of a Caio Lemos fanboy like me (and is much more exciting than Bríi’s album this year).
Recommended tracks: Ausência, Segredo, Resquício (yeah all three)
You may also like: Kaatayra, Vauruvã, Bríi, Kostnateni, Oksät, Pessimista, IER
Final verdict: 8/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Label: independent
Vestígio is:
– Caio Lemos (all instruments)
– Pedrito Hildebrando (vocals track 1)
– Bruno Augusto Ribeiro (vocals track 2)
– Yuri Sabaoth (vocals track 3)
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