black metal
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'A raw black metal journey through pain, death and solitude as seen by Chiral'. That's what the artist behind this one-man project mentions in the album booklet. However, I like to add a few words to that description. Words like 'progressive' or 'atmospheric' for instance, or 'intense', 'surprising' and 'refreshing'. Yes, this is a black metal album but I've rarely heard something as immersive and awe-inspiring as this one. This is Opeth meets Rodrigo & Gabriela meets Nortt.
Chiral hails from Italy and has been working on his distinct version of black metal since 2013. And black metal we get. Raw, primitive and intense blackened riffs, blast beats and hellish screams fill the air in nearly every song, except maybe in the opener 'Atto I: Disceso Nel Buio', which on its turn is simply a great depressive blackened doom song. That would probably make it my favorite track, me being a doom fan and all.
But there's much more to it that just bleak extreme music. Chiral is an excellent guitar player, even when he puts the electric version aside for a while and goes completely acoustic. These atmosphere folk passages are brilliant. They add a lot of credibility and originality to the whole, something that can always cound on my approval. On other occasions keyboards make up for the dreamy but dark passages, often introducing another stunning piece of musicial extremeties.
Finally, there's a lot of room for melody. Closer 'Atto Finale: Di Notte, Cielo E Solitudine' nudges back towards the whole depressive black metal scene, again much to my delight. Naturally, the song sounds haunted, fearsome and downright bleak but that's the brilliance of this whole album. 'Abisso' is well-balanced, well-played and highly versatile. So I really want to recommend this gem to any black metal fan out there because Chiral seems to have created one of the highlights in this year's blackened scene.
Serge
Chiral hails from Italy and has been working on his distinct version of black metal since 2013. And black metal we get. Raw, primitive and intense blackened riffs, blast beats and hellish screams fill the air in nearly every song, except maybe in the opener 'Atto I: Disceso Nel Buio', which on its turn is simply a great depressive blackened doom song. That would probably make it my favorite track, me being a doom fan and all.
But there's much more to it that just bleak extreme music. Chiral is an excellent guitar player, even when he puts the electric version aside for a while and goes completely acoustic. These atmosphere folk passages are brilliant. They add a lot of credibility and originality to the whole, something that can always cound on my approval. On other occasions keyboards make up for the dreamy but dark passages, often introducing another stunning piece of musicial extremeties.
Finally, there's a lot of room for melody. Closer 'Atto Finale: Di Notte, Cielo E Solitudine' nudges back towards the whole depressive black metal scene, again much to my delight. Naturally, the song sounds haunted, fearsome and downright bleak but that's the brilliance of this whole album. 'Abisso' is well-balanced, well-played and highly versatile. So I really want to recommend this gem to any black metal fan out there because Chiral seems to have created one of the highlights in this year's blackened scene.
Serge