Review: Apocryphos - Ultimum Saeculum

Artist: Apocryphos

Album: Ultimum Saeculum

Label: Cryo Chamber

Release date: April 2025

With Cryo Chamber's first "blockbuster" release of 2025 (as silly as that adjective may sound applied to this genre), the dark ambient veteran Robert C. Kozletsky is back with another Apocryphos release, his sixth album under this moniker. Hot on the heels of the previous album Acrementia, which came out less than a year ago, Ultimum Saeculum promises a rather different kind of experience, and I was more than curious to see what spurred such a meticulous artist as Robert to release two albums in such quick succession.

There are dark ambient albums that are subtle and metaphorical in their messaging, open to various interpretations depending on the listener. Ultimum Saeculum is no such album, however, at least not at face value. The intent behind this work is clear and reflected in all of its facets, from the title which means the final age in Latin, over track titles named after specific times of day, to the simple, yet impactful artwork that shows not the eleventh, but quite literally the twelfth hour. Yet for all the doomsday atmosphere conjured by the visual representation, the music is surprisingly tranquil. The focus here isn't the apocalyptic end of times (there are more than a few dark ambient albums in this vein in circulation), but rather how a human being operating at a level beyond the immediacy of the physical world and the temptations of the flesh would face such a moment. In fact, while listening to the album, I couldn't shake the feeling of staring through an aural window into the musings of a philosophically inclined, but tired soul, powerless yet fascinated at the physical and spiritual decay surrounding it. This atmosphere is wonderfully underscored by the warm analogue sound espoused by the artist in the various interwoven synth passages, subtle melodies and the occasional deep drone. I'm a shameless fanboy of Psychomanteum's debut and only album, and Ultimum Saeculum is the closest to this classic of the genre that one of Robert's works has made me feel, without, of course, attempting to replicate it in any way. The monumental closing track is a perfect example thereof, making full use of its 12 minutes to reach the psychological and emotional pinnacle of this sonic journey, despite (or rather owing to) the relative monotony of the track, which wraps up with the exact same sound sample the album opened with, in yet another reflection of this album's cyclical nature.

Fans of Apocryphos' previous releases won't find any radically new elements here, but there's a certain depth to the sound on Ultimum Saeculum that I haven't really identified on any of the artist's previous solo works, which places this album on a somewhat different footing compared to the rest of his discography, at least in my book. Having spun the record more than a few times since its release, I've found myself evaluating it from increasingly varying points of view, ranging from highly individual to highly collective, which is more thought-provoking than most dark ambient these days. In sum, another solid release to add to an already high-quality back catalogue.

Rating: 8/10