Atmospheric Black Metal added one more element to the black cauldron of emotions. This element is the touching despair included on vocals. Anguish is a valid term as well. Both added lots of meaning to modern Black Metal as they represent the mundane feelings of a huge part of humankind population. Despair and anguish weren’t present in the initial Black Metal bands. They were added by Atmospheric Black Metal bands to give their music that thing to differentiate them from the others in the name of more relevance or even to show how sad life is on this sad and lonely and pathetic little planet. Maybe the latter.
“Nightsphere” is one more effort to show that Black Metal has a lot to offer in terms of carefully disclosing some human emotions other kinds of music don’t do. Heretoir explore very well the palette of human emotions colors – I’m not sure if this exists but let it go. The star here is David ‘Eklatanz’ Conrad’s vocals and the explitation of many levels of despair and anguish. All five tracks in the album are of some level of despair and anguish varying in the intensity from the lesser to the greater. The technique is to use clean voices interwoven with harsh and eerie ones giving the intent the vocals wish for the song, or part of the song. The outcome is really something compared to a broken jaw and eye opener.
The album commences with the long “Sanctum – Nightsphere Part I” with some flashy strumming which, to some extent, reminds me of Viper’s “Cry from the Edge” due to its delicate textures. The track is an appetizer of what is to come. Following track “Twilight of the Machines” has also a delicate intro with some distorted guitar strummings interwoven with some sounds of nature which gives it a peaceful mood to be, of course, broken in seconds by a yell that comes from the very depths of hell. Well, that’s the idea of a Black Metal sound, isn’t it. “Pneuma,” however, to break everyone’s expectations the song keeps the delicate textures until the end. “Glacierheart – Nightsphere Part II” is the track where vocals show all abilities to pass emotions being the most flavored track of the album. Grand finale “The Death of Man” may be a wish. It may be the final soundtrack to the end of the virus that has spread on Earth and it’s killing it. So long.
Heretoir “Nightsphere” will be released on October 06th.
Track Listing:
- Sanctum – Nightsphere Part I
- Twilight of the Machines
- Pneuma
- Glacierheart – Nightsphere Part II
- The Death of Man
Watch official music video here:
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