Adaestuo is an international trio bringing us ritualistic sounding black metal on their debut EP Tacent Semitae. Even more precisely Adaestuo is a product of collaboration between P.E. Packain (Vitsaus) and VJS (Nightbringer, and now also Sargeist), who also enlisted female singer Hekte Zaren for special flavoring, but I'm not wavering from my above genre description of what can be heard on Tacent Semitae.

Otchlan (The Abyss) greets the listener with guitars completely meshed into a singular wall, individual notes not distinguishable, synth blended, and blast percussion hidden underneath it all. The overall effect is cold, completely exalted experience, with vocals equally morose, until they become weirdly celebratory around 3', Hekte in the background fairly audible. Deathspell Omega on its earlier rawer cuts is probably a decent reference. Cicatrices Plexae (Scar-Braids) is a transitional track, giving evidence that there are levels even below the Abyss, sounds falling even further down the bottomless pit.

Niszczyciel Gwiazdozbiorow (Destroyer of Contellations), Hekte is originally from Poland after all, initially is also about cosmic cold, but eventually grabs onto some Terra Firma, touching on a more traditional Norwegian style before switching to a slowburn dementia punctuated by female whispers. The closing title track is where ritualistic feeling comes full circle. Male incantations, interspersed with her broken wimpy whispers, Adaestuo has fully dispensed away with the riffs, and is now focused on static noise and atmosphere only. Cold synths, crushing drums .... and then she emerges with a clean final lament, for you to realize that all previous 20 min were translated from a catacomb monastery.

If this sounded to you like a track by track review, which I loathe, I apologize. Adaestuo set out on a mission of combining ambient worship and some remotely black metal, and they have succeeded at that intersection.