Veneficium - De Occulta Philosophia - A Missae Tenebrae (2008)

Not to be confused with Veneficum from Illinois, USA, this is Veneficium from Montreal, Quebec. Veneficium has been billed as one of the oldest black metal bands from this region and having formed way back in 1994 it seems this could be true. Curiously when looking at the past releases from this band you won't find much, except demos from '98 & '07. Okay so some bands move slow... well, okay this three piece moves very slow, but at last after fourteen years of existence Veneficium released their debut album in 2008 through Sepulchral Productions... and then called it a career.

On 'De Occulta Philosophia - A Missae Tenebrae' Veneficium offer up symphonic black metal in the best Limbonic Art, Sirius, Obtained Enslavement, and oddly enough Veneficum style. I guess you know what to expect; raging fast drums, semi melodic speedy guitars, harshly screamed vocals, and symphonic keyboard orchestration throughout the entire album.

With nine songs present and clocking in at just a little over fifty minutes one must certainly ask themselves if Veneficium is able to capture interest and keep attention. Well, guess what? Yes, you guessed right, this is a decent release. As is the case with symphonic black metal the keyboards often times take the center stage and this release is certainly no different since throughout the entire album the listener is hit with a haunting wave of dark symphonic synths and fortunately at no point do they sound cheap or amateurish in their execution. There certainly are some interesting riffs on this album, but generally the keyboards and raging fast drums and hellish screams overlap all that, but that's a standard practice of most symphonic black metal bands anyway.

In the end this is an enjoyable release, which I find has often times gotten better in the past couple of years since I originally got my hands on it. It's a bit of a shame these guys broke up after this release, but at least they left us with one great record and honestly if you dig symphonic black metal definitely consider checking this band out.