In a genre typically dominated by Scandinavian or European bands, it's always interesting to come across Black Metal projects from far-flung corners of the globe. The most recent one I stumbled across is the one man project IAMÍ from Brazil, who unleashed his debut full-length album "Luz e Sombra" last year. True to the BURZUM inspirations behind the music, the album was recorded using the bare essential resources, resulting in an album devoid of frills, making a nice break from the trend towards overproduced music. Another impressive aspect is that, from start to absolute finish, every single last detail was done by Rômulo himself. Even the album artwork is an own creation, whilst the lyrics, which are sung in Portuguese, draw on shamanistic and pagan indigenous cultures for thematic content, taking on an oppositional stance against the modern Christian society.

Starting off with a re-recording of "Crença Profana" (originally released as a demo track in 2013), this song has a mesmerizing intro that soon morphs into discordant melodies which twist and squirm, providing a contrast to the ethereal passages that are woven into the sound-scape. I particularly loved the very minimalistic and soothing melodies towards the latter half of this track, which created a tranquilizing atmosphere before plunging back into icy Black Metal riffs. This is starkly contrasted by the exceptionally raw feel of "Lamento", complete as it is with psychotic sounding screams and coughs, and which lasts over 3 minutes. This is immediately followed by the leviathan of a song "Quietude", which in comparison lasts nigh on a third of an hour. Here again, we are back to hypnotizing austere passages that lull the listener. However, after 5 minutes of the same notes over and over, this gets somewhat long winded and tedious. And this is a trend that is carried over to "Orvalho do Crepúsculo". They'd probably make decent track for falling asleep to or for meditation, but for just everyday listening, they can be monotonous. However, the final two tracks return to the previous slow-paced raw Black Metal sound, albeit with a more serene feel to them.

Overall, this album isn't unique or mind-blowing. Nevertheless, it is a good album that does have an interesting interplay between Black Metal and more Dungeon Synth elements. However, given that it's a debut, it is definitely a strong release, and I look forward to seeing what IAMÍ comes up with in the future.