Whereas
some people would consider starting off the year with a depressive black metal
album review as a recipe for bad karma, I, for one could not have wished for a
better way to kick things off for 2015. Glaciation are a band hailing from
Paris, France, formed in 2011. The main idea of this black metal project was to
pay tribute to the golden age of the genre, as stated by the band and the title
of their debut release "1994". However, contrarily to what one would
expect musically from Glaciation with regards to these statements, their sound
is definitely one that stands out of the black metal genre, let alone the
"Trve Black Metal" genre.
The band
plays a form of depressive black metal tainted with what I would qualify as a
"Post-black" metal touch: take the raw yet melancholic sound of black
metal from the likes of Lifelover or Ulvers' Bergtatt, blended with the
ferocity and creative ambition of post-black metal acts. Taking the core
feature of the black metal genre such as the blast beat, the grim tremolo
picked riffs and the buzzing distorted guitar tones, Glaciation recontextualize
such elements in order to craft a sound of their own. Now, 4 years after the
release of their first full-length effort, Glaciation return with this
sophomore effort, titled Sur les falaises
de Marbre.
First off, the
album alternates between the raw,
old-school, low-fi black metal timbres and some more ambitious dark-ambient
landscapes as exemplified by the song La Mer, les ruines, which transitions
into a light, aetherial tone as the track dies out. The beautifully executed production job on
the album manages to keep the old-school low-fi black metal feel while at the
same time making every instrument audible in the mix, including the bass and
the wide range of subtle orchestrations that appear throughout the album.
Another
notable feature on the album would be the superb vocal performance. Vocalist
RMS Hreidmarr shows an impressive amount of versatility on this album, ranging
from spoken word recitations to clean singing to screams. The quality of the
vocal performance greatly enhanced the albums' sense of emotional depth and
versatility, allowing the songs to string together the aggression with the
sense of poetry underlying the spoken word sections.
The songs are written with a brilliant sense of composition that brings the
right balance of variation and space to keep the listener immersed and engaged
all the way through. Every track follows a linear structure, with each section
flowing soundly from one section to the next to create a coherent narrative.
Overall, Sur Les Falaises de Marbre is a superbly
written sophomore release that showcases a great amount versatility and emotional
depth. Glaciation pays homage to the golden age of Black Metal while
maintaining a strong sense of identity, demonstrating the strength of todays'
French Black Metal Scene. I highly recommend this release to any fan of black
metal, old and new.
Robin
Glaciation
Osmose Productions
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Osmose-Productions/192865300755575
Official Website
http://www.osmoseproductions.com/index.cfm?lng=1
if you like Hreidmarr vocals, check his Anorexia Nervosa's albums... made years ago, but they are still really awesome!
ReplyDeleteHey, thanks for sharing it
ReplyDeletejacob