Two members of the horrible band LUSTNOTES (after releasing their debut album in 2006, exploring the Black Metal jabot genre) decided to start a new band together with one other member, Ishtar. 2008 was the birthday year for ADVENIAT HIEMS and their "Loki" debut EP brought me back to the first two 'fairy tales' albums of DIMMU BORGIR or the respective ones of GEHENNA when they were far away from the toxic poison that was unleashed later. These three guys from Milan want to travel you to the icy North and the mythology of these lands. The way to achieve it comes in two facts. First, the freezing production and sound that is the major key here and gives a lot of points to them, truth is. Second: the minimalistic, ambient-like style of Black Metal in the way it is based in the bands of Scandinavia, together with a'less is better' kind of songs that emphasize in the atmosphere they wanna create and give to the listener.

The final result is surely not bad and I can definitely say that ADVENIAT HIEMS raise a freezing mist around you. The absence of serious riffing (the guitar sound simply doesn't exist compared to the other instruments) is the element that reduces the quality here. Creating boredom, simply you cannot follow their concept after some minutes although you would wish to. Also, some times the vocals seem to be unconvincing but their variety from narrations, clean ones and screams in the end saves the game.

Dealing with the Ragnarok saga, in which the end of the whole universe is arriving and the god Loki wants his revenge, the Italians (although far away from the Viking countries) have written some quite good lyrics for their concept. Each song as you can see has the name of a god, except for the "Iving" intro that is the river that will freeze during Ragnarok, and for 20 minutes the gates of the North will open in front your eyes. Not in the best way it could be, but at least they are able to open them. Maybe in the future ADVENIAT HIEMS will explore the snow-covered mountains inside.