A mystery-clad project led by Portuguese musician AA and featuring the talents of various lights of the Icelandic scene such as Dagur Gíslason and Magnús Skúlason of Misþyrming, Serpentes paints a dark portrait from the modern underground scene across this debut release. Although there are shades of light thanks to moments such as the lilting female vocals that open the album (each track is given a number rather than a title, in true inscrutable fashion) by and large this is a deep, onyx-black trip. The nearly-ten-minute I builds slowly with crashing riffs and almost Deathspell Omega-esque snarled vocals, dissonant melodies swirling before the launch into blackened speed around the halfway point, riding it well to the end.

And from thereon the band take you on a twisted journey through their influences, the raging II dipping into more progressive waters as the riffs trill out atop a complex rhythmic battery. Notably throughout is how close this is to the Icelandic scene, the guitars often fluttering as much as riffing although of course there's plenty of riffs here, the disparate and diverse III just one example as it shifts from dissonant tones in an almost post-rock fashion with a near-choral ending. That transcendental feeling continues into the howling IV, even more epic and grandiose with the riffs taking over and propelling the track ever onwards. And hell, there's even something of a Bathory feel to the breathy and majestic V, turning to a more melancholic atmosphere once the snarled vocals join.

Most impressive is how unified and flowing the album feels, tracks not so much branching out as adding up to a greater whole. Stylistically and thematically this could be said to be one long piece divided into sections were it not for the pauses, and the way that, say, the peak reached in VI feels like a dramatic piece to the whole album as well shows off some polished songwriting skills. Admittedly, the following VII feels like something of an afterword with the shift to piano, spoken word, and eventually some post-metal-feeling riffing that builds into a gallop - a less satisfying ending than the previous track's, and cuttable as a result if you had to shorten the album. Yet this is the one misstep made across the album, a fine debut and well worth checking out for fans of the Icelandic scene.