Artist: Matavitatau
Country: Belgium
Label: Self-released
Formats: Digital Demo
Year: 2025
From the fertile Black Metal grounds of Belgium hails Matavitatau, an entity that finds its origin in 2021. ‘Numen Nescio’ is their debut demo and contains four tracks of Black Metal, with a rather unique twist in the lyrical department. Entirely sung in Latin, the lyrics dig into the works of Roman writers and poets Horace, Seneca, Lucan and Statius as well as the 11th and 12th century authors Egbert of Liège and Bernard of Cluny.
The musical foundation of Matavitatau is likewise built on the past, but we don’t have to go back as far as the Roman era or the Middle Ages. Instead, a clear influence of the music of the band is Norwegian Black Metal, and to be very specific, ‘De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas’. ‘Numen Nescio’ is not a carbon copy of that album, but has the same type of riffs and atmosphere, and vocalist Θ doesn’t hide his adoration of Attila Csihar. With vocals that snarl, preach and sing, the performance is utterly diverse and adds a layer of intensity upon the classic second wave structures. Besides the obvious connection to Mayhem’s majestic masterpiece as well as some moments of ‘Deathcrush’, there are some other influences found on this demo. For instance, in ‘Posse Mori’ some Master’s Hammer seems infused, while ‘Mundo Casuro’ contains riffs akin to the earlier Emperor work. This places Matavitatau more than once along the likes of contemparies that have taken these influences, and in particular ‘De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas’ to heart, so that parallels with Cultes Des Ghoules, the Nidrosian masters of Mare, but also the likes of Mystruin, Aptorian Demon and Misotheist can easily be drawn.
The demo starts off with a Pagan opening riff of ‘Posse Mori’, that then twists into an archtypical Mayhem riff. Clear in this song is that the band also infuses some Folk influences in the guitar riffs, especially as the song slows down towards the end. It is here that the bass sound becomes striking, a welcome complement to the buzzing guitars and analog drum sound. The drums deserve praise for a creativity that keeps the tracks highly dynamic. As mentioned before, the vocals fit perfectly in that landscape, ranging from throaty and raspy to delirious cries and preaching recitations. With ‘Elicior Tenebris’ the riffs take a more skincrawling appearance, after which the song becomes unhinged once the tempo goes up. Layers of almost contradictory guitars, plodding bass, a vocal frenzy and relentless drums drive the song into further escalation. Towards the halfway point the band flirts with the type of dissonance that’s associated with the Icelandic scene, after which a neat tempo change plummets the song into a final unhinged frenzy. Simply a splendid track! ‘Mundo Casuro’ harbors a similar escalation towards the end but is a somewhat more open and less choking sounding track. In a sense, a change to breathe before the strumming of ‘Calcanda Semel Via Leti’ and preaching vocals call forth the last track. The open guitar notes combined with the sermon-like singing, the shifting guitar riffs that follow, the glorifying undertone in the atmosphere and the thundering cacophonic drums and blistering bass, what a way to end the demo!
It is one thing to place an album on a pedestal, and something entirely different to truly pay homage to it. What Matavitatau achieve on their debut demo is nothing short of impressive, delivering a demo filled with excellent riffs, dynamic drums, pulsating bass and delirious vocals. And especially how they manage to find balance between it all is exceptional! ‘Numen Nescio’ comes highly recommended to those that worship bands that followed closely in the footsteps of ‘De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas’, simply and amazing demo that hopefully will soon see a physical release on vinyl!
