Reviews: SAT020
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In order to promote this somewhat underestimated split-release, I will try to give it some additional promotion, because There’s Never Silence In The Mist deserves this. And so does Satanath Records.
There’s Never Silence In The Mist was released two and a half years ago, and it is a collaboration in between two Mexican one-man projects. First we can enjoy three compositions by Astarot, which did release a new album pretty recently via Metallic Media (hi Tim, I’m impatiently waiting…), and last year, on November 8th 2014, Concreteweb uploaded the As Leaves Fall album, which was released via Russia’s Satanath Records too; check it out! On this split, band leader / multi-instrumentalist Gonzalo ‘Astarot’, who’s involved with Abysmal Depths (review on The Pain Shows In Dead Woods: see update October 11th 2014), Suicidal Years or Alasthor too, was joined once again by vocalist and colleague in the very same acts mentioned above, Alfonso ‘Tortured’. First there’s the instrumental title song, which dwells within spheres of desolate and hypnotic ambient soundscapes, melodic and integer, chilly and obscure. With its nine minutes, the next track, Unfortunate Moment, is the longest piece for Astarot. Tortured screams (you can say as well: Tortured screams, aha) of a hysterical kind and some grim yells get initially joined by ultra-slow melodies and mesmerizing keyboards, before turning little faster and more aggressive after a couple of minutes. Still the keyboards are of huge importance, for they are somewhat the carriers of the melodies; guitars, bass and drums are mainly presented to support the rhythmic structures. Nothing wrong with that at all, I think! The slower approach returns within the second half of this hymn, yet the fast-paced grande finale is so overwhelming… The third piece is an untitled and, once again, instrumental one, being more classical qua melody, with rainy noise at the background, and based on synth passages and grand piano melodies especially.
From The Torrent & The Fountain (nice moniker for sure, based on an excerpt of E. A. Poe), aka FT&TF, are an outfit by Paria Rahu, but they broke up shortly after the release of the second album. Here From The Torrent & The Fountain bring two very lengthy tracks, respectively ten and eighteen minutes of length. …And The River Flows and Embracing The Absence are a mixture of ice-cold and raw, nihilistic and primitive Black Metal, based on primal melodies and minimal rhythms. It’s the sonic definition of necrotic ugliness and first wave-oriented aggression, yet the simplicity gets done so fabulously… Really, this is part of a soundtrack to promote the sulphur stench of the Underworld. Of course the sound quality sucks (did you expect a huge production in an expensive studio?), but it strengthens the rawness and barbarism of this most beautiful ugliness. But in general, and that goes for the second song especially, it sounds too strongly like a cheap rehearsing result, and a minor effort to lift the sound quality up to a higher level, would have been appreciated a lot by undersigned. Besides, it would / could have become too much, seen the length of the tracks, if FT&TF weren’t that ingenious (yeah, I am exaggerating, of course, but I try to make a point) to add a somewhat epic acoustic intermezzo in the opening track, and something comparable within Embracing The Absence, though the first additional intermezzo’ish one sounding like some frenzy Lugubrum-madness with distorted electronic banjo, haaarghhh… The second half of this song, starting at about ten minutes, is much more integer and sober, with subtle melodious passages on acoustic guitars initially, joined by modest claps / percussions after a while; this stuff building up towards a peak that, unfortunately, never gets reached. And so this experience fades away…
For sure Astarot did not come up with their best material to date, and FT&TF disappoint with that inferior sound, and that’s why I can’t go into positive superlatives. But at the other hand, both projects have something unique, something that must appeal to open-minded fans of the underground. And that’s the reason why this review must be seen as a reason, a push, a proposal to look after this split-album.
This is a review of a split album between Mexico's Astarot and From The Torrent & The Fountain called "There's Never Silence In The Mist" which was released in 2012 by Satanath Records and we will start off the review with Astarot a solo project that plays an ambient form of black metal.
His side of the split starts out with ambient soundscapes that also can be very atmospheric at times along with the first song being all instrumental and on the second track depressive black metal screams along with heavy yet melodic guitars are added into the music while also keeping the atmosphere that was presented on the intro.
One of the tracks is very long and epic in length and when the music speeds up it goes for a more raw take on the genre while also adding in a small amount of blast beats and the songs also bring in a great mixture of slow, mid paced and fast parts while the last song is all instrumental, the production sounds very dark and raw while the lyrics cover nature, nostalgia, melancholy and astral themes.
In my opinion this is another great sounding recording from Astarot and if you are a fan of ambient black metal, you should check out his side of the split. RECOMMENDED TRACK "Unfortunate Minute".
Next up is From The Torrent & The Fountain a solo project that plays a raw and atmospheric form of black metal.
His side of the split starts out with water sounds and a few seconds later distorted guitars are added into the music and they also bring in a raw and lo-fi black metal style as well as speeding up a bit and introducing grim vocals and screams into the music and both of his tracks are very long and epic in length.
When solos and leads are added into the music they are very raw yet melodic sounding and during the faster sections of the music a great amount of blast beats can be heard and clean playing can also be heard in the songs at times while the last track also brings in a brief use of spoken word parts, the production sounds very dark, raw and lo-fi while the lyrics cover death, night, melancholy, epic and ancient tales.
In my opinion From The Torrent & The Fountain are a very great sounding raw and atmospheric black metal solo project and if you are a fan of this musical genre, you should check out his side of the split. RECOMMENDED TRACK "Embracing The Absence".
In conclusion I feel this is a very great sounding split and I would recommend it to all fans of the raw, atmospheric, depressive, and ambient sides of black metal.
http://occultblackmetalzine.blogspot.ru/2016/01/astarotfrom-torrent-fountaintheres.html