ANTIMATERIA – Valo Aikojen Takaa

The word «antimatter» has been written more than once on our pages, especially due to Mick Moss' famous band; this time, instead, we're facing the so named project of the Finnish Ahma.

The debut album of this one-man-band presents us some very melodic and atmospheric Black Metal, far from both Post– and cascadian influences, instead closer to more traditional sounds; simplicity is this musician's favourite weapon, used at its best in order not to get chaotic arrangements, while preferring on the other hand catchy riffs, celestial keyboards and frequent mid tempos. The whole disc is rife with that same melancholy which has been proposed over the Nineties, so nothing truly new, and yet "Valo Aikojen Takaa" is refined due to Ahma's skill of creating songs which last a while but manage to easily keep the listener focused: a song like "Kun Aukeaa Mysteerit Kuoleman" — my favourite one out of the album — catches listener's eye for its main riff in the first section and its otherwordly atmospheres in the second; alike catchy are the acoustic guitar parts put here and there in various tracks that emphasise the calm moments, while those more pushed prove themselves succesful as well, as in the last song.

Every single element of Antimateria looks totally devoted to Atmospheric Black Metal in its purest meaning, even the production work, enough clean to let us tell each single instrument and yet sufficiently home-madeish to highlight the darkest vein of the arrangement; I'm quite sure that lyrics are as faithful as the rest: sadly my finnish knowledge is up to zero, but titles' translations kindly given to me by Oneiros gave me the idea that Ahma should be quite a lover of the Nineties related forms and themes of the genre, as he chooses for example words strictly related to the light and dark dichotomy with the natural and obvious inclination towards darkness.

Fundamentally flawless, "Valo Aikojen Takaa" is a disc which is going to be appreciated by those who love the sounds told before; a great visiting card indeed from this new band of the Finnish panorama.