115th part of the short reviews.
WRAITHSABBATH – Glory in Finality
Year: 2022
Label: self-release
Rating: 6 / 10
A one-off project of the cool girl from Texas who plays guitar in the band CHURCHACIDE, as well as in MORBOSIDAD. She makes wonderfully infernal noises with her raspy throat, and everything else, from music to sound, is not feminine at all here: smelly, brutal and boorish. As it should be! Obviously, “Glory in Finality" was made mostly for fun: just three songs, very simple digital "prodcuction", a drum machine with nightmarish cymbals, and the compositions are very unpretentious. However, they have more than enough of rage and energy. As for a release that lasts only 15 minutes and is distributed for free on Bandcamp, this is a very worthy piece.
NORDEIN – Reisa
Year: 2024
Label: self-release
Rating: 7,5 / 10
Nordic folk from Jørn Øyhus - an ex-guitarist of NORDJEVEL and a leader of the band VARDE. "Reisa" is an ear-pleasing EP that contains three well-thought-out and beautiful tracks. "Spring" is designed in a classical instrumental style with acoustics and flute. "Kampen Ör Evig" is a great full-fledged song with a steady rhytm. As it turned out, this is a rehash of the heavy metal hit by the Swedish band UTMARKEN. The last one is the title track, made in the style of folk ambient. Thus, all three tracks demonstrate different approaches to the genre and do it equally successfully. Let's add that NORDEIN has a very high-quality and professional sound. I wonder why this music hasn't been released in a physical format yet. Probably, some kind of compilation is coming soon.
VALDRIN – Throne of the Lunar Soul
Year: 2023
Label: Blood Harvest
Rating: 9 / 10
At first glance, everything related to this band on this album seems very Italian: a blurry photo of the musicians in carelessly chosen outfits and with swords in their hands, a pretentious presentation, a bloody amateurish cover, and a very rich sound with a claim to symphonicity. But VALDRIN actually originates from the USA and is most likely inspired by the Scandinavian Black Metal scene. Therefore, instead of trying something grandiose and then fucking it up with a shitty thin sound, like them Italians always do, VALDRIN present their ideas in a strong and tight sound. Drums and vocals have a very familiar taste of DISSECTION and NECROPHOBIC, and the music in general tries to be EMPEROR of the 2nd and 3rd albums. Only guitars often work here instead of keyboards. Say what you want, but VALDRIN can play. Their style of music doesn't exactly match my tastes, but I can't help but admire how much work has been put into it. 10 + 1 very complex, intense songs and epic lyrics worthy of an expansions in the form of the book. All this takes as much as 73 minutes, and I can confidently say that these minutes were not wasted.
CACHOT D’EFFROI – Demo
Year: 2023
Label: Misantropia Discos
Rating: 6 / 10
The releases of Misantropia Discos, unrelated to MOONBLOOD and other bands featuring Gaalmazagoth, have not really impressed me yet. Here, for example, is the demo of CACHOT D'EFFROI. This is a French one-man band playing the darkest metal in the best French traditions of the one-man bands: a thick, sepulchral sound, unintelligible vocals, shitty drum machine and a powerful atmosphere of cold evil. Not that it's a bad thing, but I've heard tons and tons of such bands. All of them have pretentious French-language names that instantly fall out of my head, and they offer music that doesn't differ from the music of the similar bands at all . I cannot understand why Mirko signed CACHOT D'EFFROI. There's nothing special here.
WINTER ETERNAL – Echoes of Primordial Gnosis
Year: 2024
Label: Hells Headbangers Records
Rating: 6,7 / 10
WINTER ETERNAL is the project of the Greek musician Soulreaper, who now lives in Scotland. According to the pretentious name, he plays very epic and melodic dark metal in the Scandinavian style, mixed, interestingly, not with a Greek sound, but with SAOR. But it has less bals than, for example, DISSECTION or UNANIMATED. The Swedes at least from time to time reminded us that their roots lie in the darkness of BATHORY, but there is nothing like that in WINTER ETERNAL – it's all emotion and anguish. I do not dispute that Soulreaper plays beautifully and works hard, and the guest vocals from Alexandros from MACABRE OMEN and Mrs. Hildr Valkyrie are interesting to listen to. However, all this quickly gets boring. After all, this is an album where every track is the culmination. Listening to 33 minutes of climaxes is much less interesting than 40 minutes of more measured stuff with one or two culminations. For the billionth time, I have to remind: the contrast is one of the most important tools in the arsenal of any artists.
The most confusing thing about this release is that it was released by Hells Headbangers. Because it's absolutely not their style, not in the slightest. I hope HHB signed WINTER ETERNAL while being drunk. By the way, the press release for the album turned out to be unbelievably disgusting verbal masturbation, worse than everything I've read so far. I've been trying not to read press releases for a long time precisely because the crap they write there is impossible to tolerate, but it caught my eye... In the finale, the author happily declares that WINTER ETERNAL is now “No longer the black metal underground's best-kept-secret.” Nathan Birk, I respect you - but FUCK YOU!
