From Bandcamp, “Guitarist of NOISE TRAIL IMMERSION, Daniele Vergine is a musician who has in his strings not only the post-black metal played by the band he is part of, but also the darkest and most atmospheric black metal. He demonstrates this in his solo project, OCCULTA VERITAS. "Irreducible Fear of the Sublime" hides a poetic and philosophical soul, expressed both in the sumptuous cover painting by Vama Marga and in a veiled melancholy that seems to envelop all the songs and that comes from having probed the depths of the unconscious, in the wake of the studies and theories of French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan.”

“The Mirror Stage” is the first track. Bass guitar carries the early, dissonant melody, followed by a thick guitar riff and vocal screams. It quickly descends to a very harrowing sound, with notes of hopelessness, and the chord progressions are complicated albeit somewhat odd. “The Sacred Horizons of Totality” is another song with a lot of dissonance, and unique chord progressions. It sounds chaotic at first, but when you dig deeper, it makes more sense as a listener. The vocal screams here sound like total torture…the kind where it’s every bone in your body.

“Metonimia” is the third song with a similar base but a totally different vibe, and this sounds more like Progressive Black Metal to me than the garden variety. The overall state of affairs keeps getting worse and worse here, as the skies turn from grey to a churning black. “S(A)” begins with a good deal of tension, and ambiance. The vocals are ethereal, and Daniele shows his versatility in songwriting. This is a fascinating album so far. “Bound to Incompleteness” has a deep, overgrown sound that comes from far below. It’s almost as if it opens up a portal to Hell, and you can hear the expansive sound growing.

The title track closes the album, and it’s another chaotic but structured sound, with more meter shifts than one can count. The genius of the band and specialness of the album is hard to describe, although the biography in the introduction covers part of it. It does indeed feel like it is sent to probe your subconscious mind, and what comes back you don’t want to see or hear. Still, it was a valuable exercise, that shows the many dark layers of human existence.