Santiago, Chile's Animus Mortis are on to something with Testimonia, their second album and first in six years. By that measure, they're a rare black metal commodity who is purposely sideways and avant-garde, without taking the full-on whacked-out bait. As in, the songs that comprise of Testimonia have a quick, rather instant flair, whirl, whatever to them. It has more to do with what they don't do than what they actually do, which frankly, isn't all that out of bounds. But, the album is able to achieve marvelous pace by parlaying some seriously charming riffs, which always wins in the end.
