Writing a review is a bit like dissecting a body.

The initial sentences are like the first incisions, same with the opening tracks of an album. An album opener should plant the flag for the sonic terrain about to be navigated. This can be applied liberally over genres, but with a Black Metal album it comes with a bit more gravitas. It could come as an out of the furnace blaster, or slow and foreboding; giving a false sense of comfort before the storm hits.

Hailing from Chile, Ad Infinem Omnia formed back in 2020 comprising of Ricardo Araya (guitar, bass, vocals) and Pablo Vera (drums). Their debut album No Peace – No Dawn is a volatile mix of blackened thrash, stitched together through volleys of blast beats that rarely let up over the course of the record. “Vultures” is the best way to open this album, a salvo of acid-bitter vocals that ride over twisting guitar paths, propelled by the energy of the music as a power source.

It’s third track “Solve: Route to Extinction” where things get interesting and what starts out as masterful insanity transcends to something completely different at the 1:30 mark. The groove is undeniably good, changing the temperature of the song drastically; thus, making it and fourth track “Coagula: Promethean Fire” the diabolic centerpieces of Ad Infinem Omnia’s altar to 90’s Black Metal. It is track seven “In Defiance” that is my favorite, reminding me of other great choruses, spitting bile from ice capped mountains.

Comparisons don’t come easy here. This is a “Pitch Black” (track 6) record. I hear influences coming from each of the early Black Metal days of the 90s. Incidentally, when I read their bio, I noticed they had both been a part of Totten Korps, a fantastic Black/Death outfit whose Tharnheim: Athi-Land-Nhi; Ciclopean Crypts of Citadels comes highly recommended if your playlist includes Morbid Angel, Hate Eternal or Angel Corpse. Which isn’t saying that Ad Infinem Omnia sound like ANY of those bands, no matter what this is steeped in blackness from the North; cold and evil. With Summer coming, this is the perfect album to keep your soul cold.

[Visit the band's website]

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