For today's review, we'll be looking at (shocker) a black metal band. This band as the title of this entry states, is SKJAERSILD. Don't ask me how you pronounce it, because I have no friggen idea on how to do so. The demo release which will be critiqued here is titled The Pillars of Suffering. Yes my people, we have another DSBM band on our hands. I rarely listen to this genre, yet it keeps seeming to find me.
The album, which was just recently released, was given to me via Youtube by one of the band's members, who I met on Metal Archives (I pretty much meet everybody there in hindsight *chuckle*), whose name is Khalvst ov Mhurn. The band hails form Spain (yeah apparently outside of DSBM always trying to get me, the Spanish are as well). And like my last album review, since this is on Youtube, I have no idea on the track order. So you're getting a track listing in the order I listen.
Now then, let's enrich our minds.
The first track, titled Go Away, is just a 56 second intro. There isn't much to critique for the track, but I do love it. It's made up entirely of piano, and it sounds very well peerformed and written. I'm a sucker for any good classical sounding piano music, and this track is no different, as I enjoy it very much. If only it was longer.
The next song, called "Is Not A Voice Anyone" starts off with a clock ringing. After we're told of the time, we get greeted by more piano work. And once again, it's very nice. But then we come to the vocals. Now, throughout the reviews I've done, I've talked about how vocals are too loud, too inaudible, and so forth. But literally I can't understand jack shit here. It's performed in a whispering tone, and very softly I might add. You can hear the vocals, but don't try to decipher anything, you won't be able to. It does kind of go hand in hand with the piano and depressing tone of the song and album, but come on, can't you speak louder? And this is the whole song. No other instruments (outside of the clock in the beginning) make an appearance. So yeah, the track ends, we move on, and I feel somewhat bored. Be it this is still the first real track, but when I feel bored during the song, it doesn't make me or any other listener for that matter want to even continue listening. But alast, I have a job to do. So let's move on.
Track three, given the name of "Looking at the Emptiness," starts off with a violin. You know, I know DSBM uses non metal instruments, but I'm starting to think I'm listening to classical music, or lost tracks from a non Webber version of Phantom of the Opera. But wait, we finally get a guitar finally. And it sounds decent, although it is mostly the same chord/sound over and over and over. The vocals for this track, are a little better. They're more audible, and not as fucking soft as the last one, which means I can finally critique them properly. And all I have to say on them is, bleh. I know I've been kind of harsh on the album so far, but my job is to review these albums (or whatever else I review) in a professional manner, which means I have to play the role of bad guy every now and then. Anyways, while the vocals start off as a screech and scream like most are known for hearing in Black Metal, we quickly go back to whisper land. Although this time, it's somewhat more loud then the previous track. To a degree, I can kind of make out the lyrics, but all I was able to decipher was "Why" and "Pain." The electric guitars do pick up though, and we even get not a piano, but an electric keyboard playing thrown in. To be honest though, like I was with "Is Not A Voice Anyone," I'm bored, and so I'm moving on to the next track. Oh, and one last thing to mention, near the end of the song you can hear an acoustic guitar and a what I think is a mandolin.
Track four, called "Rotten Nature" starts off sounding quite a bit like Marilyn Manon's "The Nobodies." Whether this was intentional or not, it's fairly nice, and probably the only other thing outside of the piano work that I've honestly enjoyed on the demo. And it carries on. And goes on. Continuing...and continuing...and continuing. Holy shit this is getting unpleasantly repetitive. Finally though, the song pick ups some. The rest of the song though is just the same guitar riffs which change to a degree near the middle and end of the song, a pretty simple drum beat, and more iKeys. Oh, and the vocals are probably at the best here on the album. Soft yet loud, whispering yet screaming. So I can say I enjoyed the vocals at least once.
And now we come to the final track. This one, entitled "Blinded to See the Most Inhuman Pain," starts off with some lively electric guitars. Except while it is lively, it sounds depressing as Hell. The vocal style from the last track returns....and then hot damn we get something I thought this album didn't have, a guitar like solo. And the solo proceeds to carry on the guitar duties for the rest pf the song, with the singer coming in and out of it. And thus, we come to the end of this album.
As I stated earlier, I hate to be mean, but this album just does not do it one bit for me, and is going to have the lowest grade of any album I have reviewed (at the moment). As a DSBM demo, it does the job well in making you feel depressed, and I will give it credit on at least achieving it's goal. It has and makes the right sounds to get you down and gloomy, and the vocal styling helps enhance this with that damn whispering style he went with.
But this is where my pros and compliments of the album stop. Stop as dead as my investment into listening to the thing. In my full hearted opinion, it's overly repetitive, something which metal is known for, but it really is over abused here on how much the chords from the guitar sound the same. The vocals, while they do set the atmosphere and mood, can only be heard clearly on two tracks. And yes I know it's Depressive Black Metal, but there's barely any metal in it except for a few riffs here and there. As said though, it does a very good job of getting you depressed if you're into that thing. I'll leave the link to their Youtube page, so you all can listen to it, but just do it when there aren't any sharp objects, pills, or rope around.
Now if you all will excuse me, I need to go cheer myself up.
D
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