Style: Symphonic black metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Emperor, Ihsahn, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Septicflesh
Country: Denmark
Release date: 13 November 2026

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Let’s make this about me for a second, shall we? Last year, The Progressive Subway undertook to rank and round up our Top 50 albums of the first half of this decade (a project conveniently abbreviated as AOTDSF or AOTHD). In the course of this project, I was exposed to many artists and albums that were new to me, including Lamentari with their 2024 debut full-length album, Ex Umbra In Lucem. While it didn’t make the sitewide list, the album soared to the top of my personal rankings, above erstwhile contenders like Meer, Nospūn, and Obsidious. But of course, I’ve always been bewitched by symphonic elements in heavy music: I’ve spoken before about tween Claire’s parasocial Nightwish fandom, and I am the world’s biggest fan of the little-known Beethoven’s Last Night album by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Perhaps, then, the triumph of Lamentari—purveyors of deliciously extravagant symphonic black metal—shouldn’t have come as a surprise.

To speak of the fusion of classical with extreme music is to imply that the former isn’t already extreme, and that’s simply not true. Mozart, Beethoven, Verdi: those guys were metal as hell, they just didn’t know it. The luscious excess of a full orchestra, like a slab of moist, fudgy chocolate cake, satisfies me in much the same way as a barrage of blast beats and excoriating harsh vocals. And with a full orchestra and choir at their disposal, Lamentari marry these two extremes so congruously that sophomore album Ante Auroram just about makes my eyes roll back in my head in ecstasy. There’s nothing subtle about this marriage: opening track “Ante Auroram” sees the choir and orchestra elaborate unabashedly on Mozart’s “Lacrimosa”, swelling for a minute and a half before the full band bursts flamboyantly into the fray.

Where many symphonic metal bands employ orchestra and choir as extra layers of flavour, Lamentari feature it in a central role. Indeed, the metal instrumentation retreats almost entirely at times, playing cat-and-mouse with the orchestra throughout “Ante Auroram” or ceding the spotlight altogether in the non-metallic interlude “Ex Favilla”, with its skyward-scrabbling ascent. Elsewhere, the guitars choose their moments to claw their way out of the writhing heap of orchestral tumult, as in the squealing solo around the four-minute mark of “Oculi Lapidis”, while the tightly wired, almost mechanical rhythms opening “Gradus Dei” demonstrate just how precisely the band, choir, and orchestra can operate in tandem. In “Ante Auroram”, crystalline drops of piano hang suspended in the air before being abruptly engulfed by the crush of the full band. Lamentari clearly know the value of contrast, allowing moments of delicacy and restraint to offset Ante Auroram’s more thunderous outbursts.

Atop the bedlam of the orchestra and band, the vocals are disarmingly straightforward. Languid screams stretch over roiling symphonic passages, frequently falling into simple, triplet-heavy rhythmic patterns. But greater complexity would hardly be an improvement: the vocals function as another texture rather than an extra convolution on tracks that sometimes burst at the seams. Nor do the vocals require maximalist accompaniment to be effective, as the understated passage three and a half minutes into “Audientia Divina” demonstrates. There, pseudo-whispers drift hauntingly in and out of a sinuous bassline and hushed strings, their confessional tone drawing the listener in closer.

At less than forty minutes, Ante Auroram is a relatively brief affair, much like its predecessor. My colleague Chris cited the debut’s short runtime as a shortcoming in his review, but I’m inclined to disagree. As with that heretofore invoked slab of chocolate cake, the sheer richness of Lamentari’s music makes a more modest serving preferable to an overindulgent one. And where Ex Umbra In Lucem caught me completely off guard at my first listen, Ante Auroram arrived with the weight of considerable expectations on my part—and handily managed to meet them. Ultimately, it’s the orchestra that gets the final word on Ante Auroram, a fitting conclusion to an album that grants its symphonic whims such free rein. For all their bombast and excess, Lamentari know precisely when to bow out, leaving me thoroughly satisfied—though I certainly wouldn’t say no to another slice.

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Recommended tracks: Ante Auroram, Oculi Lapidis, Audientia Divina
You may also like: Limbonic Art, Aquilus, Thy Shining Curse, Xanthochroid
Final verdict: 9/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Independent

Lamentari is:
– Daniel Lønberg (Vocals)
– Emil Holst Partsch (Guitars)
– Michael Møller (Guitars)
– Kristoffer Tønder Koudahl (Bass)
– Christopher Peetz-Schou Vissing (Drums)
– Max Uldahl (Keys/Synths/Orchestration)
With guests:
– Frederik Øgaard Jensen (Bass)
– Eskil Rask (Fretless bass)
– Ani King, Aaron King (choir)