This could well be the perfect ingredient list for an interesting metal album. You know, band ain’t suitable for naming under one genre, a good mixture of styles and perhaps some uncomfortable feelings. Yet, this is not the issue I’m struggling with when listening to Adversus by Quadrivium. I really miss some kind of a red thread, a guidance to tell me what I’m listening to.
 

Quadrivium was born as a result of a fascination with the more esthetic and synthesizer influenced side of metal which resulted in a combination of dark black metal and ambient atmospheres. And at first sight, it seems like a very well structured album; the production is very fine with the biggest emphasis on the synthesizers (which will make you feel at ease, yet a little uncomfortable) while the blastbeats of the drums remind you of the fact that this actually is heavy music. There are two types of vocals, the ‘black metal grunt’ and another, clean, style that I find hard to define but perhaps it comes closest to a Viking band. All of that is mixed together and the result is an album full of extremities with the first half being the more heavy one while the second half relies on quietly, long compositions.
 

If there is one conclusion I’m able to make, it’s that all the choices are very well thought off. Whether it’s about details such as opening with a heavy riff, followed by a strange jazz tune or the sound as a whole, which is truly something I won’t forget quickly, the record doesn’t look hasted. Yet, the extremities make me wonder who will really dig this music. Perhaps fans of Arcturus or the early Dimmu Borgir fanatics will know what to do. For me, I’d give it a solid seven plus an extra point for making me struggling way too long.