Finland’s Cosmic Church is the brain child of one Luxixul Sumering Auter, who plays all instruments and does all vocals for this project that has 2 full length albums and a large number demos and EPs, of which Vigillia is my first exposure, but I will certainly be going back to the artists back catalog based on how much I enjoyed this EP.

EP is a slight reach as Vigillia is 4 songs but its over 30 minutes long, but regardless it’s a quality release that blends in well with a lot of the melodic/atmospheric one man black metal out there now such as Spectral Lore, Soar, Mare Cognitum and Panopticon.

The guitar tone is organic and warm, the vocals are distant, harsh shrieks that reminded me of early In the Woods and the bass is a steady, earthy hum in the back ground. But the music is centered around controlled marches and canters and rousing, woodsy but bright melodies that give me a bit of a early Borknagar album. There is some really nice harmonies here as heard on opener  ‘Track I”  around the 5 minute mark, about 2:15 , 5:00  and final rending minutes of  “Track II”. And I mean really nice harmonies, the sort of knee wilting, Vallendusk-y, Ghost Bath-y, (but less shoegazy), heart rending harmonies that get you right in the fells, but still retain some blackened bite as I never got any sort of post black, Deafheaven-y vibe from the material.

“Track III” keeps things blacker in pace, but still dripping with downright sumptuous, majestic melodies, while the closer ‘Track IV” initially slows things down a bit with a more melancholic pace, but picks things up with a down right brilliant, rollicking romp around the 2;12 mark that’s just to die for, and it ends of just a glorious, uplifting note that signals Ayloss of Spectral Lore has some real competition here with Auter. Let’s see if he can keep it up and deliver a third album at some point that keeps this kind of quality up for a whole album.

[Visit the band's website]

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