Timor Et Tremor – Realm of Ashes Review

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Some may call it Atmospheric Black Metal by some of the features that appear here as the vocal duets in the mysterious “A Hundred Days of Rain.” Or, even, by the instrumentals that aren’t really that heavy – of course, for Black Metal standards -, where the guitars use lots of strummings and melodic phrases and passages as in the slow and doomy “King of the Lost.” For the same reasons and many others more, some would call it Melodic Black Metal – from where I’m standing it’s the one that fits better to what I’ve heard here. The aforementioned “King of the Lost,” for instance, is long with many different passages where the band experiments lots of unusual sonancies – again for Black Metal standards. Guitars are always changing techniques in order to fit them better at the song what makes “Realm of Ashes” an album of guitars. Timor Et Tremor work pretty well with the musical tensions they create always getting interesting solutions as the almost clean guitars using full chords in the end of this song. Vocals here are also a highlight. The song ends with some enchantings that are really beautiful. Yeah, beautiful, a word that many wouldn’t use for a Black Metal band. Well, I can always use malevolent if my dear child of the night wishes.

In a nutshell, “Realm of Ashes” is an album of moods where each track showcases a different one very well planned as hell. From the genre point of view, are a Timor Et Tremor modern band that manages very well the emotions and tensions created here. It’s a hodgepodge of Metal music as many other bands are today. An outcome of more than 50 years of Metal bands influences that shaped our beloved kind of music and that are at hand for everyone to use them as they please. Some tracks as “Of Wolf and Sun” are exactly this representation of Metal music at its best regarding to all the influences it suffered in those years and more the ones the bands were incorporating. Its complex emotions mirrored by the vocal duets and the melodic guitars tell this tale to the child of the night who listens to the album. It’s noticiable that Timor Et Tremor worked hard to build all the layers of sounds that make the song unique. I guess that hardcore Black Metal fans wouldn’t like a band like this exactly for all the melody, but for me, it’s just perfect as I adore these musical contradictions and contrasts. Lirically, I’d say the vocals in the album have something of romantic. Not the laymen romantic, but the romantic as iun the literature and imagery. I got that idea by looking at the CD cover. All this obssesion by death and illnesses.

Timor Et Tremor “Realm of Ashes” was released on October 28th via Trollzorn Records.

Track Listing:

  1. Mirrors and Smoke
  2. Voices from the Coffin
  3. A Hundred Days of Rain
  4. King of the Lost
  5. Of Wolf and Sun
  6. Catharsis
  7. A Crown of Bones
  8. Bearer of the Accursed Sands

Watch “Of Wolf and Sun” official music video here: