Tag Archives: atmospheric black metal

(review) Tilintetgjort – ‘In Death I Shall Arise’ (Dark Essence Records)

The debut opus of Oslo based Norwegian band Tilintetgjort was carefully made to bring new impact to the scene and it did, now when I listened to it, I can safely say, it did. This one consists of six songs. Members of this band are in no way new or strangers to the scene playing or having played with likes of Troll, Den Saakaldte, Kvesta, Whip…to name just a few. Music of Tilintetgjort is that old shool Norwegian black metal sound, not dissimilar to nineties legendary albums and for sure influenced by all those legends, but it is also so much more, so we can even call it avantgarde black metal, being special, original and different from legions of clones out there. If I must compare this to some band it would be to early Dodheimsgard, at least I hear it like that. There are blast beats almost most of the time, apocalyptic cutting riffs, but also melancholic melodies and slower original and mid tempo to almost acoustic backed atmospheric parts, also wicked guitar solo can be heard occasionally along with dark ambiental parts.. Vocals are superb, courtesy of singer Svik, whose voice transforms so much from black metal screams to clean and beautiful melodies like in fantastic ‘Vinter og Host’ and there is a treat at the end of this album, 21 minute long epic Dommedagsmonument, as you can read, lyrics are all in Norwegian, but if you are into black metal for long you can judge from the song titles there are themes such as doomsday, alchemy, witchcraft… This is a brilliant fresh album and a very, very, strong debut.

9/10

(review) Lumen Ad Mortem – ‘Upon the Edge of Darkness’

Lumen Ad Mortem are hailing from Adelaide, Australia, far away scene for us Europeans from Central Europe and I am so glad when I discover hidden gem and beauty from that scene and believe me, there are superb underground bands and projects there. This is relatively new band in the scene, this being their debut opus, but members of the band are veterans of the scene playing of having played in Destroyer 666, King Parrot, Deluge, to name only a few. This opus offers six epic songs of mainly slowed down atmospheric and melodic black metal with some doom influences like for example in ‘Infinite Resonance’, but do not be worried there are also blast beats like in ‘Within the Smoke’ whose aggression turns back again into slower epic songwriting of ‘Ethereal’, with that beautiful epic melodic blast beat ending. Vocals are black metal screams, sometimes, going into death metal grunts and gothic chant reminding me of late great Peter Steele of Type O Negative at times. Keys and orchestrations are grandiose and fit perfectly sometimes at front sometimes backing guitar melodies, aggression and melancholy. This album yet again reminds me why I love black metal so much as a music to express your feelings and innermost battle with your demons. My personal favorites: ‘Ethereal’, ‘Thought and Memory’, ‘Narrow Paths and Stoney Ground’.

8/10

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(review) No Point in Living – ‘Beautiful Tragedy’

No Point in Living is hailing from Japan and it has been in the scene since 2015. This is very prolific entity under mastermind, one individual called Yu. This is the brand new opus and it contains seven songs. Music of No Point in Living can be described as a mixture between depressive suicidal black metal, more aggressive and raw black metal and atmospheric black metal with longer songs and so many emotions in this opus, making me remember why I love black metal so much as a means of expressing darkness, atmosphere, feelings and your innermost self and demons. Lyrically this opus delves in waters of self hate, depression, hopelessness, making it out of this alive or dead, darkness and nihilism and misanthropy. Vocals are deeper in some songs like singing from coffin or beneath the earth, gloomy and dark, so is guitar work, but there are lots of tempo changes in song parts but retaining some really melodic, at times acoustic synth backed parts to make it almost a vessel comprised of soundscape black ship which takes your mind and body to other spiritual dark dimension in which you feel painful but good at the same time. My personal favorites on this one are: ‘All or Nothing’, ‘Beautiful Tragedy’ and ‘Song of Loser’.

8/10

Bandcamp