A live choir in a London room, conducted rather than programmed, and Lamentari have Ante Auroram out since 13 November.
The Danish band's second album runs six songs: the title track, "Oculi Lapidis", "Gradus Dei", "Venia", "Ex Favilla" and "Audientia Divina". It is their fourth release in what they call their symphonic canon, and it comes out on several limited physical formats through Over The Under Records. Stefano Morabito, who mixed Clavis Aurea and Nihilitatis, mixed and mastered this one too. The choral passages were recorded in London under Aaron King.
Orchestrator and choir arranger Max Uldahl said the Latin word lamentari means a passionate expression of grief, and that the band wanted the record to hold both sides of that: "To grieve deeply is to have experienced something worth grieving for." Singer Daniel Lønberg, who also drew the cover, said the title means before dawn and the album is about what a soul carries from one life into the next.
The band played a release show in Copenhagen last Thursday. They finished third in the Wacken Metal Battle in 2022 and took the New Hope Live award at Den Hårde Tone after playing COPENHELL with a choir and a conductor on stage.