Well with my date postponed till further notice, and with my album received today, I thought I'd go ahead and give it a review as I listen to it for the first time.
Today's review is of the Hithaeglir album Tidvatten Av Svart Sorg. The band was founded by it's only member Feigr, and hails from Spain (although he is currently relocating to Sweden). He recorded the album by himself in August of this year, and limited the release to only 150 copies. I met Senior Feigr on the website Metal Archives. I stumbled upon him in a topic he had about some black metal recording techniques, which featured a link to his band's page. I followed it, and after seeing the artwork for the album, I was intrigued pretty much instantly. I sent him a message if I could be sent a copy, and well obviously he did just that.
So after about two weeks of waiting, the album came today. I popped the sucker into the computer to listen to, and here we are. I'm actually writing this as the CD just started to replay, so this isn't a first time listening review I suppose.
The track listing for this debut EP is as follows:
1. Blaze, Grow, Arise
2. Embracing Chaos
3. Aska
4. Hithaeglir
5. Gränsen mellan liv och dröm
The sound of the album is pretty decent in my ears. It sounds fairly raw, and does produce that old Norwegian sound. The quality of the whole production is fairly decent. You can tell that it was recorded to have that raw grittiness feel for it. The album presents itself with a feel of Burzum, in the sound of the instruments, and of the vocals. Kinda makes you wonder if this was the goal of the entire thing, considering we have a one man band here *chuckle*.
The guitar riffs are solid, and can be clearly heard for the entire length of the EP. They do however sound like the norm when it comes to Black Metal. This isn't really a bad thing, but it's not a good thing. They sound very good, but there is they do have that feel of "I've heard this before." One other little con and nitpick I have on the guitars, is that they sound almost identical on some of the songs. Specifically Embracing Chaos and Aska. But all in all, they sound very concrete, and are pretty catchy to me.
The drums are obviously heard throughout the whole recording. The beat of the drums is the typical sound that one will hear on my a black metal recording. However as much as I nitpicked the guitars for being like this, I don't really mind it on the drums portion. The drums need to provide a beat and rhythm to the songs. And the drums do accomplish this. Most Black Metal drumming does sound the same in general, so this isn't me saying only this album does it. As I said, it provides that same old feeling of rhythmic pounding, and that's all that matters.
And the bass is mostly inaudible. Next section.
Now we come to the vocal portion of the EP. The sound of the vocals are pretty decent. They have that Black sound to them, and will be very raw in some portions of songs. If I had to say what they sound like if I was comparing another artist, they sound like Immortal met Darkthrone. My only real gripe for the vocals is that they can get a little loud in certain sections. Some people might think "So?" but it's something that can make some metal heads unhappy. I personally didn't care that much, but it was weird to go from medium volume to almost booming volume at times. But as a whole, the vocals are very clean and good.
In conclusion, Tidvatten Av Svart Sorg is a pretty nice piece of Spanish Black Metal. The back of the booklet says that it's depressive Black Metal, but it didn't sound all that depressive to me. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. If it was suppose to sound bleak and depressing, then I didn't pick up on it one bit.
If you're looking for a new band, or something new in general, I suggest picking up this up. You can contact Feigr over on the Metal Archive Forums, or on the band's Facebook page. It''s a great first step for Hithaeglir in the direction of EP's and full albums. I will admit that it could use some improvement in some areas such as how loud the vocals get, and some new things be introduced in the guitar area. But all in all, it's a great piece of work in my ears.
C +
Today's review is of the Hithaeglir album Tidvatten Av Svart Sorg. The band was founded by it's only member Feigr, and hails from Spain (although he is currently relocating to Sweden). He recorded the album by himself in August of this year, and limited the release to only 150 copies. I met Senior Feigr on the website Metal Archives. I stumbled upon him in a topic he had about some black metal recording techniques, which featured a link to his band's page. I followed it, and after seeing the artwork for the album, I was intrigued pretty much instantly. I sent him a message if I could be sent a copy, and well obviously he did just that.
So after about two weeks of waiting, the album came today. I popped the sucker into the computer to listen to, and here we are. I'm actually writing this as the CD just started to replay, so this isn't a first time listening review I suppose.
The track listing for this debut EP is as follows:
1. Blaze, Grow, Arise
2. Embracing Chaos
3. Aska
4. Hithaeglir
5. Gränsen mellan liv och dröm
The sound of the album is pretty decent in my ears. It sounds fairly raw, and does produce that old Norwegian sound. The quality of the whole production is fairly decent. You can tell that it was recorded to have that raw grittiness feel for it. The album presents itself with a feel of Burzum, in the sound of the instruments, and of the vocals. Kinda makes you wonder if this was the goal of the entire thing, considering we have a one man band here *chuckle*.
The guitar riffs are solid, and can be clearly heard for the entire length of the EP. They do however sound like the norm when it comes to Black Metal. This isn't really a bad thing, but it's not a good thing. They sound very good, but there is they do have that feel of "I've heard this before." One other little con and nitpick I have on the guitars, is that they sound almost identical on some of the songs. Specifically Embracing Chaos and Aska. But all in all, they sound very concrete, and are pretty catchy to me.
The drums are obviously heard throughout the whole recording. The beat of the drums is the typical sound that one will hear on my a black metal recording. However as much as I nitpicked the guitars for being like this, I don't really mind it on the drums portion. The drums need to provide a beat and rhythm to the songs. And the drums do accomplish this. Most Black Metal drumming does sound the same in general, so this isn't me saying only this album does it. As I said, it provides that same old feeling of rhythmic pounding, and that's all that matters.
And the bass is mostly inaudible. Next section.
Now we come to the vocal portion of the EP. The sound of the vocals are pretty decent. They have that Black sound to them, and will be very raw in some portions of songs. If I had to say what they sound like if I was comparing another artist, they sound like Immortal met Darkthrone. My only real gripe for the vocals is that they can get a little loud in certain sections. Some people might think "So?" but it's something that can make some metal heads unhappy. I personally didn't care that much, but it was weird to go from medium volume to almost booming volume at times. But as a whole, the vocals are very clean and good.
In conclusion, Tidvatten Av Svart Sorg is a pretty nice piece of Spanish Black Metal. The back of the booklet says that it's depressive Black Metal, but it didn't sound all that depressive to me. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. If it was suppose to sound bleak and depressing, then I didn't pick up on it one bit.
If you're looking for a new band, or something new in general, I suggest picking up this up. You can contact Feigr over on the Metal Archive Forums, or on the band's Facebook page. It''s a great first step for Hithaeglir in the direction of EP's and full albums. I will admit that it could use some improvement in some areas such as how loud the vocals get, and some new things be introduced in the guitar area. But all in all, it's a great piece of work in my ears.
C +
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