MARE COGNITUM has been one of the pillars of atmospheric black scene for the last 6 years: Jacob Buczarski, the mastermind behind this one-man project, is now reissuing his first release, dating back to 2011, "The Sea Which has Become Known," via I, Voidhanger Records. This isn't an ordinary release though, as, behind a polished artwork, we still find the original release sound, pure at heart without any remastering and such: this a time machine view at the core of MARE COGNITUM roots, untouched, to witness the path it has taken during these years, toward its outstanding new releases like "Luminiferous Aether."

Sound appears more straightforward than latest releases, more focused on riffage and wall of sound, but lacking all the layering of its known space black metal: although a good proof of Jacob guitar skills, the "atmospheric" part looks an embryo of what we're used to listen in his production. What we find is the same force and visionary views, laying the foundation of its cosmic signature. We see Jacob going through the whole black metal spectrum: tracks in which it lifts upwards, like "Vehement Coalescence"; death metal hints in "The Immortal Plague. Other times we see him blackgazing into space, pushing us to the boundaries of the solar system. Background vocals, although a bit too far drowned in this space landscape, melt well with the instruments, forging the key sound we've been taught by the black atmospheric metal scene.

"The Sea Which Has Become Known" is the raw, still unshaped, diamond Jacob Buczarski has been polishing for the last 6 years: releasing with no remastering is useful to understand what lies under MARE COGNITUM experience, all the layering he's been able to design in the next releases, as a first proof of what he's worth of. The moon surface on the album cover just reminds us where he started, before exploding into quasars and supernovas of the newest albums.