As already mentioned, Of the Muses plays blackgaze, with touches of folk on the edges, in a way that is simultaneously familiar and unique. Being a one-woman black metal project is undoubtedly going to lead to comparisons with Myrkur, but that’s actually not a bad place to start—Senhal feels a bit like early Myrkur meets Alcest. It’s emotional, not super heavy, and unmistakably a work of black metal. The album is dominated by shrieks, blast beats, and tremolo riffs, but is produced and mixed in such a way as to feel vaguely comforting in spite of them. The opening minutes to the album are a perfect encapsulation of this; “I” begins with soft strings, a faded-in tremolo, and a sense of calm before Cristina Bombi tears it all apart with a vicious assault—in the span of three seconds, the song transforms without changing, entering black metal territory without ever losing that initial melody that offered such peace.
In that way, Senhal succeeds as a heavily emotional album. The average song exceeds eight minutes (though the album itself is an impressively restrained forty-two) and spends that time drifting from clean strumming to brutal rasping, from ethereal strings to screaming so charged it peaks the song and eclipses everything else, and then back to quiet passages with clean singing. “I” and “II” manage these transitions the best, acting as journeys more than songs. “V” takes a different approach, closing the album by juxtaposing Bombi’s blackened rasps with next-to-no metal at all. It’s Senhal’s gaze-iest song, relying on strings and basic tremolos to carry the tune in a beautiful journey of quiet, effective intensity. Here, Of the Muses argues that less is more, and ends Senhal on a high note for it.
If only the rest of Senhal followed the same idea! If the album has any issues, they’re largely wrapped up in the idea that Of the Muses often tries to do too much. “III” is a perfect example. It happily leans into being a black metal song more than anything else, pushing much of the Alcest inspiration to the back of the mix and letting Rombi shriek her heart out. It’s heavy, emotional, and powerful—at least for the first minute or so, before she switches to clean singing that feels a little out-of-place atop the symphony of distortion. The song takes a reset of sorts halfway through and begins a buildup to the heaviest moments of the album, and here the singing suddenly makes a lot more sense. Across the album’s longer songs, especially “II” and “III,” there’s an uncommon sense that certain elements aren’t needed to achieve the indented effect, as if Of the Muses is using its full arsenal where simplicity might be a more effective means of achieving the same—or even stronger—effect.
Senhal is a remarkable album, and a strong start for Of the Muses as a project. Really, my only critique of it is that it has a little too much of a good thing. Cristina Bombi has managed to create an album that feels refreshingly honest, an element that makes it approachable and enjoyable. I’m eager to see how the artist refines her style; I can only imagine from her debut that it’s all uphill from here.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: My Kingdom Music
Website: facebook.com/ofthemuses
Releases Worldwide: November 3rd, 2023
