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Another French black metal band that shows that the French scene is back after a few years that were a little lacklustre. A/Oratos play heavy and somewhat brutal, yet very melodic black metal on this album. The music is reminiscent of that of the melodic French scene circa 2000, but A/Oratos play it harder and often faster. For me the vocals are the highlight on this album. A very aggressive screechy rasp that just slice through the ears for the most part, with a few clean spoken—sometimes sung—passages that have a dark, sorrow vibe to them, they're impossible to ignore as they are forward in the mix, but they don't get in the way of the music, really coming off like just another instrument. Ecclesia Gnostica is a dark, sometimes sorrowful album, but it nevertheless comes off rocking your socks off more often than not as the band just plows away, destroying everything in their path. I've been stalling on reviewing this album because I like to listen to it so much. If you're looking for melodic and aggressive black metal that makes you sit back and pay attention, this is it right here.