There is an old woman who lives in the mountains. She opens her doors like a tomb to a vast territory. They call her mother, sometimes other words in other dialects. She makes the roses bloom like the sun, and the Earth like Spring. ÆVANGELIST, a black metal band from Finland, formed in 2018. Their newest album, "Nightmarecatcher," an hour in length, but featuring only three exquisite tracks. The album is quite abstract, letting the listener get lost in a space so well-developed that they forget to include doors, and the knobs too. One finds themselves lost in the celestial gaze.

"I: The Origin and End of All: Pain of the Fallen," sets the arena with a spooky reverberance. In a seemingly off-key creation, the guitars create a pang of climatic science. There is a man who once knew the woman in the mountains. They call him all kinds of names, but nothing seems to define him. He whispers throughout the notes, and in solace, he repeats tales to himself, tales about the woman who lives between the trees. The track picks up and the voice is clearer. There is thunder off in the distance and the skies over the mountain thicken like the soil. "II: Ceremony of Decomposition of Bodies" lifts the creatures from the ground. In an instance, all is forgotten. The woman nor man can seem to breathe. The drums follow the darkened bass, and the high pitched guitars settle like wind on the river. The sun beam moves snake-like, sailing up and down like a scale in the sky. The ethereal sounds become so atmospheric, so animated, that even the man and woman forget who they are. They watch the grey clouds overhead. They think it is an omen, but it begins to rain instead. The field of endless grass and strings seems to calm the world. A chorus sings as the rain pellets fall. Like beatific in a measure of pleasurable chaos, the woman sees the man.

"III: In the Vomb of the Chaos, Source of Life Energy" begins with a followable melody. The track carries like footsteps across ceaseless sand. Rhythms are repeated, refracted, but one never gets tired of hearing similar patterns as notes fades in the memory of consciousness. The woman runs to her cave in the mountain. The sounds echo like sweet stalagmites. Drums toy with the piece, pulling it back to the beginning and the end. The woman eerily sings. She blends in with the guitars and the bass, but is off tune for effect. The space encumbers itself. The man appears at the cave-tomb door, and to his luck, finds it unlocked. She screams and she hollers, but no one hears her. For the man sets fire to the tomb. He walks away with a dusting synth-like piano, unbothered as he disappears into the forest where he comes from.

ÆVANGELIST's "Nightmarecatcher," is a dreamworld reality where only the darkest of thoughts come true. In a wavelength different from our own, the album explores the vacancies that are left when the mind tends to wander in abstractness. It is quite intangible, but a fulfilling emptiness. It deserves a well listen through the three-part creation.