SERVANT - Lux Ex Inferis

SERVANT’s fourth album, "Lux Ex Inferis", has been a particularly enjoyable record to review at a time of year when autumn is welcoming the colder season. It was also an album I had been looking forward to for quite some time, not least because the band is from the region where I live. By the time they reach their fourth album, SERVANT demonstrate that the refinement of their melodic black metal approach is not simply a matter of adding more melody. The foundation established with 2024’s "Death Devil Magick" develops here into broader harmonic territory, more pronounced keyboard use, and a compositional approach that handles the internal dynamics of the songs with greater care. None of this means the album has abandoned its harshness; quite the opposite. One of the record’s defining qualities is the way anger and melody take on different functions within the same compositions rather than working against each other.

This approach becomes apparent within the first few minutes. The brief introductory track 'In Noctem' creates a hazy, mystical space through choral textures, guitars, and sparse percussion, establishing an atmosphere in which distortion is not yet at the forefront. 'Tabula Rasa' then cuts through that space with an immediate surge of speed and intensity. The melodic movement of the riffs, constantly driving drums, and the combination of P.G.’s guest vocals with Farago’s make the track more than simply a fast black metal song. The broad, relatively transparent guitar arrangement leaves room for the melodies to carry the composition, while the vocals define its aggressive side. The crucial shift here is that melody is no longer a decorative element standing in opposition to heaviness; it has become one of the driving forces of the songwriting itself.

'Glorification' continues along this path with a more direct sense of aggression, but its acoustic section in the middle briefly alters the track’s direction and prevents its momentum from becoming one-dimensional. These kinds of breaks serve an important function in SERVANT’s songwriting: changes in tempo or intensity are not used merely to alter the atmosphere, but also to increase the impact of what follows. 'Thanatos, Embrace Of The Night' offers a slower counterpart to this approach. Its misty guitars and mid-tempo structure retain a sense of groove through the pressure created by the bass drum hits. After a long pause gives the track room to breathe, the final surge becomes all the more effective. The way keyboards are used here—not as decoration pasted over the guitars, but as a secondary layer shaping the dark atmosphere—also helps explain the album’s broader approach.

'De Profundis' is one of the points where old-school black metal darkness intersects with the increasingly prominent melodic and atmospheric side of the album. The track’s direct aggression moves alongside its melodic chorus structures, while Lethian’s distinctly different vocal character reinforces the contrast. 'Lux Fulget' leans more heavily into a rawer black metal vein, yet the tension created by its acoustic break shows that the album’s variety does not depend solely on speed. SERVANT does not abandon the genre’s traditional vocabulary here; instead, the band uses it at different levels of intensity, keeping it within the same framework as the album’s more modern and melodic side.

'Of Stones, Sleep And Death' is one of the best examples of this flexibility. The guitar arrangements give the track a tragic quality, while the keyboards create an ethereal atmosphere in certain sections before faster passages disrupt that sense of calm. 'The Accuser', meanwhile, moves toward a more immediately accessible melodic structure without losing its dark atmosphere. Particularly in the heavier sections, the contrast between the keyboards and guitars prevents the track’s accessibility from becoming simplification. Closing track 'Hypnos I See You' also serves as a culmination of this development: prominent lead guitars push the song forward while the melodic thread remains intact, and the finale re-establishes the balance between darkness and grandeur developed throughout the album.

The production is also an important part of this development. Farago’s approach to production and mixing preserves the density of the guitars without allowing the melodic details to disappear beneath one another. The full-bodied character of the bass, Apophis’s fast drumming, and the different layers of guitars fill distinct areas of the compositions rather than masking one another. The decision not to keep the keyboards constantly at the forefront is particularly effective; in some sections they guide the atmosphere, while in others they can only be sensed behind the guitars and vocals. As a result, the album retains its dark character without being locked into the same tonal register throughout.

"Lux Ex Inferis" should therefore not be seen as a departure from SERVANT’s previous work, but rather as a more assured and comprehensive application of the direction that became more pronounced with "Death Devil Magick". The harsher and darker side of the 1990s black metal legacy still forms the backbone, but instead of treating that legacy as a rigid matter of genre loyalty, the band incorporates melodic guitars, keyboards, acoustic passages, and different tempo relationships as natural elements of its songwriting. The album’s modernity is not limited to having a contemporary sound, either. The real difference is that, despite carrying more ideas within the songs, those ideas never dilute the black metal character at their core.

The album’s most convincing development is that melody does not soften its anger. On the contrary, the greater prominence of melodic structures makes the impact of the blast beats, harsh vocals, and sharp riffs more apparent. "Lux Ex Inferis" becomes SERVANT’s most cohesive work to date precisely because it brings these two sides together within the same compositional language rather than presenting them as alternatives. Remaining within the familiar boundaries of melodic black metal while expanding those boundaries into a broader compositional space is where the album’s real value lies.

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