Lua Viana, or should I say Antropoceno, is bringing an album with a genre spread so outlandish that I'm not even sure where to begin. "No Rtimo da Terra," according to RYM, is a mixture of, and get ready, post-rock, art rock, Afoxe (an Afro-Brazilian genre), avant-garde metal, Candomble music (influence of Afoxe), neo-psych, Capoeira music (originating from Rio de Janeiro), samba, BIRD SOUNDS, MPB, and post-metal. Holy shit. Ho-ly shh-it.

I'm attempting to start talking about this LP with the most important part first, that being the overwhelming ethnic influence. Every single track is chock-full of cultural instrumentation, with a plethora of native instruments that I sadly can't name. From the twinkly steel pan in "No Ritmo da Terra," to the lovely abundance of percussion and bird sounds in songs like "Pe Rembi'urama." The playing of the instruments, in addition to the swaths of post-rock and post-metal in songs like "Xe Anama (Coracao no Ritmu da Terra)", is dissonant and extremely atmospheric. Sometimes it's a jungly acoustic groove, other times it's the pure avant-garde. The chanted vocals, supplied by both Lua and a crew of featured vocalists, the most memorable being Pai Viny on "Iranti Ode," come from the many Afro-Brazilian genres I named, further enriching the album's culture. They're hypnotising, and admittedly get a tad redundant for the longer songs, but that's the whole damn purpose of a chant, isn't it? Before I move on to the metal, I discovered that track seven, "Xe Anama," gleans passages from "Futuro Ancestral," a 2022 book about the destructive nature of capitalism. What an interesting release this is.

The amount of metal in this project is prominent, too. While citing avant-garde metal, I'd say Antropoceno dips into atmospheric black metal and post-metal the most, with tracks such as "Ayaba Oxum" and "Oya Dewo." The previously mentioned chants evolve into high-pitched belts, revealing the raw emotion behind them, resulting in a cathartic listening experience. The drawn-out post-metal parts, with their walls of guitars and drumming, also feature harsh vocals. I'd go as far as to argue that the sheer amount of ethnic percussion is metal-adjacent, due to its distortion. Some subtle electronic elements add a modern touch, but I could go without. There's definitely enough metal here to earn a spot on the website for sure, and a pedestal spot at that.

The fact that this is essentially a solo project is downright insane to me. Antropoceno's "No Ritmo da Terra" is a monster of an album, and, with the combination of metal and culture, plus the artistic album cover, it's already contending for my AOTY. Lua Viana takes the ethno-black metal sounds I've heard from bands like Kaatayra and Vauruva and makes them even better, and I cannot wait to see where she takes this musical beast next.