A one-man entity courtesy of California-based musician Jacob Buczarski, Mare Cognitum was born as an attempt to ”carve out its own territory in the wider scope of BM – a movement often viewed as a clouded sea of imitation and duplicity”. Those are fairly ambitious aims, and there’s nothing wrong with that of course, but the music here is neither as cutting edge nor experimental as those words suggest.
Falling loosely into the atmospheric/depressive BM niche, the lengthy, melancholic songs include some definite nods to the post-black movement thanks to emotive riffing, but it’s interesting to note that just as often the songs make use of much more traditional BM attributes, balancing the more introspective melodies with icy blasts of aggression.
A relatively flat production – a traditional move, though perhaps not intentional – limits the emotional dynamics but for those who invest the time more depth is evident.
