After a five-year wait, Martwa Aura released their third full-length album, Lament, this year. Compared to other releases under this banner, the change is immediately apparent from the cover alone. Over the years, Martwa Aura has accustomed us to almost every album featuring black and white colors shrouded in gray. In the case of Lament, the situation is somewhat different. Neither the band nor the album name appear on the cover, but the colors of the photo remain, which, at first glance, without any familiarity with the band, aren't even associated with black metal. In this photograph, we can see a very emaciated human body topped by a subtle flower and its petals.

The album runs just under forty minutes, consisting of seven songs, each titled "Lament Pierwszy," "Lament Drugi," and so on, reaching track six, as the final track has a completely different title, "Morbus Animus II," which I'll discuss later in this review. From the very first seconds of "Lament," hatred for the human race and this valley of tears pours out of the speakers. The greatest contribution to this is made by Greg's lyrics and vocals, which, without losing the black metal roots of the grime in the vocals, still leave plenty of room for understanding the lyrics while listening to the album, without even having to reach for their visual versions, whether in the booklet or online.

Compared to their previous full-length albums, such as "Contra Mundi Contra Vitae," Martwa Aura has opted for a smoother and less dirty production. Furthermore, Greg often uses clean vocals, which is undoubtedly off-putting for many, as you can detect hints of post-black metal in some passages. However, I must say, it's not terribly jarring. The clean vocals are shrouded in a graveyard-like fog of uncertainty, which adds a lot of atmosphere to the songs, combined with the slower guitar and drum sections.

However, moving away from speculation about Martwa Aura's stylistic shifts, let's focus more on the core of this full-length, which, of course, are the riffs. And they truly demonstrate the caliber of this band. Maintaining a fast tempo, they don't lose their madness or ferocity. Accompanied by Desolator's blast beats, they create a veritable impenetrable wall. However, stormy riffs aren't everything. As I mentioned earlier, there are also plenty of brilliant slower grooves here that pierce our marrow from the inside. Adding Greg's menacing and tar-filled lyrics to this equation creates a truly sulfurous atmosphere.

As I mentioned at the beginning, six songs begin with the word "Lament," and the final track breaks this sequence, bearing the title "Morbus Animus II." And just as it might seem, this is more of a return to Martwa Aura's previous album, Morbus Animus. While the song may differ slightly in structure from the previous ones and is played in the style of the earlier full-length, it certainly doesn't stand out enough to make it seem out of place here. On the contrary, it fits very well as a closing track.

Summing up this review, I can definitely say that this album is different from Martwa Aura's previous releases, but it's by no means not worth listening to. In fact, I'd say it's worth a lot of listening. Considering only the releases this year, "Lament" was the one I listened to the most on my headphones. For a simple reason: this is music that acts as a catharsis, draining all the anger and hatred from our bodies in an instant, while simultaneously serving us enough musical fervor to knock down a small elephant.

While some may have a slight aversion to Lament and some of the techniques employed within it, it's still a very good piece of work worth your time. Your opinion of it afterward is a matter of personal preference.