Solus Grief - With A Last Exhale

 

Solus Grief is an interesting depressive black metal project emerging out of Norway and speaking to the torturous melancholy that this band has in its finest hours. With A Last Exhale is a surprisingly diverse and eloquent effort, a record that leans into its DSBM roots, but is unafraid to embrace other sides of what makes black metal so special. The end result is a thrilling assault on the senses that keeps listeners engaged and reminds us that at some point we will have to have a last exhale of our own, by our own choice or not. 

With A Last Exhale is a thriller, any way you slice it. There is a very real charm to this album that captures the imagination and brings listeners ever deeper into the beauty of what's been conjured up here. Solus Grief impresses not just with the breadth and variety of their compositions but also the level of emotion they're able to communicate. This is an album that leans into so many of the wonderfully dark visions of suffering that we all must confront. The end result is a record that is haunting at best, a driving effort that claws at the soul and forces listeners to deal with their own fragility as they seek a path forward in a world where nothing is certain.

Wonderfully frigid and not a little bit terrifying, Solus Grief conjure up new waves of misery on With A Last Exhale and consistently show listeners what sets them apart. With A Last Exhale may not necessarily be turning the page, but it is a potent reflection on the melancholic beauty of this music and is sure to keep listeners entranced as they indulge in the moribund lessons of this sorrowful work. With A Last Exhale is frightening and powerful. Letting yourself get immersed in these ministrations of sorrow is a unique experience you won't soon forget.

Pre-order the album!

https://www.solusgrief.bandcamp.com/

Woewarden - In The Art Of My Caged Existence

What is it with Australia and having great DSBM bands? Woewarden is a project emerging from the most isolated city in the world, Perth. Emerging from the same sonic space as artists like Austere or Woods of Desolation there is something wonderfully bleak about the atmospheric and depressive tones of what Woewarden has crafted here. Featuring members of Deadspace, Advent Sorrow, Fleshworship and Pestilential Shadows the pedigree is there, and fortunately the music very much holds up to these vaunted precursors. 

In The Art Of My Caged Existence fascinates because of the breadth of the production and the larger tha nlife ministrations as the doomed ambiances crash down around your earts. These songs are epics, and whie only one splays out past the six minute mark, each offering feels like a multi part threnody, doomed to drag you to hell and force you to come to terms with the wonderful darkness to which we are all party. There is a really bleak future outlined here and a fascinating sense of despair that drives the whole album forward. Clearly a labor of love, the production is wodnerful and the emotions behind the execution are sure to keep listeners engaged as they come back time and time again. 

This is DSBM done with a flair for the tragic. The mournful vocals are almost wailing at ties, before sinking back into a more plaintive shriek. Minor key riffs and desolate songs paint soundworlds full of misery. It's hard not to be drawn in by the misery that Woewarden are crafting here and the bleak sense of isolation that is watchword among these songs. This is DSBM done with a dense of despair that you rarely hear fully executed on and it's a delight to let yourself get lost in the inhuman suffering that Woewarden continue to paint. 

Pre-order the album!

https://woewarden.bandcamp.com/music

L.A.C.K.

Depressive black metal has built its reputation on being entrancing well thought out and deeply emotional music. Acheron, the genius behind the mystical and incredibly sorrowful sonic assault of L.A.C.K. seems fully aware of this and crafts intricate soul entrancing black metal to capture his listeners imagination. There is something distinctly charming about the sounds of L.A.C.K. that force you to reconsider your own place in the world. Reminiscent of bands like Alcest, Acheron is certainly onto something special. Sure things haven't been fully knocked out yet and some of the production could be played with, but his latest offering, the wonderfully grim Where Everything Goes will capture your imagination and take you on a dark journey guided by music reminiscent of acts like Austere. Symphonic and bewitching L.A.C.K is the type of music that speaks to the inherent darkness of the soul.

Find L.A.C.K. on Facebook!
https://www.facebook.com/LifeAfflictionCanKill

Glaciation - Sur les Falaises de Marbre

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

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Norse - Pest

Black metal is inherently noisy, graphic and beautiful. When a band is willing to embrace the inherently demented nature of the genre and show us the path to something triumphantly evil it's hard to say no. With Pest Norse show us that they are proud walkers of the left hand path and the simply twisted nature of their sound will entrap your mind and bring it to a strange new reality. These guys are doing something that not everybody can latch on to, but for those of us who have the musical background to get it this record is a rewarding listening experience.

Pest is magical because it shows us the dissonant darkness that I think resonates within so many of us. There are a lot of really twisted and kind of beautifully fucked up moments in this record and that's what makes it so engaging. What other band could envision pulling out the animalistic growls that close Encoded Weakness? Sure you could say these kind of things are found in all manner of black metal records, but I think you can make a strong case that Norse do it better. They are dark in the purest sense of the world, the sonic landscapes they create are distinctly bleak, not ones that you can easily forget.

Yet despite it all, Pest uses grooves that we can all, as metalheads, fundamentally relate too. Pest proves that Norse are capable songwriters and though their sound may be sick and twisted their is some sort of strange and perhaps perverted link to that good old rock and roll music. Pest grabs you by your manky hair and drags you into the pit. This is a ride into hell with strange greater lords of reality guiding you into a pit that has that strange beauty which defines much of the black metal ethos. Indescribably and glorious, Norse have done it again.

Find them on Facebook!
https://www.facebook.com/norse.official

Moloch-Verwustung

Moloch has been around since 2002, putting out top notch releases with stunning frequency. It would seem that his latest effort, Verwustung is his best yet, a stunning example of dark ambient sounds mixed with screaming and unapologetic black metal madness. Inspired by the likes of Burzum, this record has it all, fully capturing the magic, and raw futility of one man black metal. Made especially relevant because of current upheavals going on in his country, Moloch has gone above and beyond, creating something new, powerful and purely passionate.

The glory of Verwustung lies in how it deals with pure, unfiltered emotion. Be it in the dark ambient magic of tracks like Todestille or the raw unapologetic black metal that dominates much of the record, Moloch has opened himself up and shown us his heart. Or at least he's allowing us to think that. Given the dark and mysterious nature of the music, its possible this is just more subversion. Another point, the vocal and keyboards on Verwustung were recorded in the forest, and I feel that you can actually hear it. There is a certain wide open sound in the vocals that can only be found in the darkest Carpathian wood. The lo-fi production only adds to the records charm.

My only complaint about Verwustung might be that it seems to be mixed rather quietly, but even that adds to the pvre kvlt feeling behind many of these songs. With this release, Moloch manages to capture the heart of winter, or at least a part of it, and we find, that it very much reflects Moloch himself. Verwustung shows the undying power and magic of one man black metal, this is not a record to be taken lightly, or digested in just a few listens. There is a depth here that very few musicians can grasp, Moloch is a black metal master, and Verwustung is proof that he should be honored as a living legend.

Find Moloch on Facebook!
https://www.facebook.com/Molochukr

Meaning of Life-A Cry Into Desolation

Depressive black metal, now THERE is a genre to be reckoned with, beautiful and somber the music of these bands seemed destined to accompany the listener to their grave, yet, it is often hard to pull off. Meaning of Life though accomplish it with aplomb pulling together an excellent record that shows the power that Central American black metal has. This record has all of the negative vibes that make life such torment at times. A crushingly depressing and very heavy trio from Honduras Meaning of Life have created something truly magical with their latest release, A Cry Into Desolation.

My favorite part about this record is probably the epic soundscapes that this band creates using both guitars and keyboards, they are harsh and unforgiving, yet often surprisingly beautiful. The sense of doom that seems to pervade a lot of these songs only adds flavor to the tracks and makes pieces like the nearly 10 minute long Heartless seem a lot more poignant. The keyboard lines are probably a big part of this and give a sense of old school fatality to the songs, they are one of my favorite parts of this record. Their melancholic minor key melodies are not something to be easily forgotten or cast aside. Instead they rise up and take the music to a whole new level.

In conclusion, A Cry Into Desolation is nine tracks of pure black metal magic, songs that tear the soul into shreds but somehow make you feel good about it afterwards. If you're looking for a band who will bring your mind down but somehow lift your heart up at the same time then Meaning of Life is the group for you. Depressive and glorious I'm excited to see how these guys develop their sound in the future, they certainly understand how to make top notch depressive black metal, a genre so few excel in. For now, all I can say is long live Central American black metal!

Find them on Facebook!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Meaning-Of-Life/224790110940644

Khristenn Corpse

When I was sent Khristenn Corpse's music I was told it was a gift from Venezuela. At first I was a bit skeptical, and then I pressed play. Khristenn Corpse represents some of the best black metal on the market today. Not just Sarcofago knock offs Khristenn Corpse understand the raw evil that is black metal. They full embrace the idea that black metal ist krieg. With lush acoustic soundscapes that are then ripped apart by black metal fury Khristenn Corpse is made up of masters of the genre. I love the way the melodic lines intersperse with their heavier guitar parts. It gives the band a lot of flavor and really keeps things fresh and interesting, Khristenn Corpse are breathing new life into the burgeoning Venezuelan black metal scene. Also notable is that this record has the Amazonian darkness that characterizes much of South American black metal. A group who understand the true desperation and evil that black metal is supposed to have I'm excited to see what the future holds for this group of grim warriors!

Find them on Facebook!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/khristenn-Corpse/187415994636597?id=187415994636597&sk=app_2405167945

Lychgate

Lychgate is an impressive black metal band who are out to take over the world. With their hyper intellectual and introverted black metal sound it seems like they just might be able to do it. The melancholic tones of songs like Sceptre to Control the World are masked under layers of exquisite production and vibrant guitar tones. Speaking of which, this band employs a swarm of very slow and depressing guitar melodies to add atmosphere to the bands sound. That is not to say that there are no moments of raw black metal, many of the songs feature the genre in it purest form, screeched vocals and tremolo guitar lines et al. Yet what truly make this band special is the clanky and strangely crushing minor key melodies that dominate the music. They are what truly entraps the listener into the sound and submerges them in waves of the most unholy black metal. It seems like this band has been chosen by the dark lord himself to succeed and I am very curious to see where this band ov ultimate evil end up a year from now.

Find them on Facebook!
https://www.facebook.com/Lychgate

Nostalgia

Nostalgia is a powerful and depressive black metal band from Peru that will step on your soul and grind it into a pulp. Their music has all of the raw aggression of Burzum and the beauty of Agalloch. Mixed in with the powerful and depressing tones that only the true devotees can attain. I love the raw anguish that is found in their most brutal attacks and the despair in the more acoustic portions. Their songwriting is fabulous with finely crafted people that show expert musicians who have honed their craft over a period of years. This is a band that all trve black metal fans will love and no other will fully appreciate. Obsessed with kvltness and the ultimate power of one of metals most extreme genres Nostalgia will rip your face off and feed it to their own depressed demons.

https://www.facebook.com/nostalgiaofficialperu/app_2405167945

Filsufatia

Filsufatia is an extremely introverted depressive one man black metal act. All the songs on these demos are bizarre and definitely not for the common man. Mostly done on a synthesizer this is a band that uses some of the most epic and powerful music that I have heard in a long while. The majority of the songs on this record use the poor production to their advantage, to give the music a more down to earth quality. The musicianship present on this record is phenomenal. It shows a compositional and technical brilliance that is rarely matched in metal music. Their is a very repetitive style to a lot of these songs. This often seems to manifest itself in a form of serialism. There is definitely a strong influence from early 20th century experimental composers. In conclusion, Filsufatia is a very interesting act with some refreshingly dark music that any fan of introverted and very kvlt projects should enjoy!

https://www.facebook.com/Filsufatia/app_2405167945

Sindecent

Sindecent is a brutal and evil black metal band that captures all of the depressive magic that makes bands like Burzum and Rotting Christ so brilliant. With guitar riffs very much in the vein of Immortal Sindecent manages to drag you into their crushing sound. The music uses lots of dark minor key melodies that help destroy any joy you might have had going into listening. The keys are atmospheric and add a beautiful edge to what is otherwise an extremely brutal sound. The new EP is at once a tribute to the titans that helped form the genre, while simultaneously pushing the envelope as to what the genre is capable of. While this is definitely not music for everyone those who are into the genre will love it. So go black metallers and revel in the inverted glory of Sindecent.

https://www.facebook.com/Sindecent/app_2405167945