Bran - “Odcházeni”
(Signal Rex, 2022)
Warlike melodies wrapped in bucolic and dormant atmospheres. From sharp riffs, so Black Metal, to delicate and almost sweet moments. The musical reality that this Czech trio exposes us to is truly expansive and challenging. From icy Black Metal to richer details in Heavy Metal melody, these 4 songs are rich in quality, where the identity so strong of Eastern Black Metal is felt. Novices in this edition - at least under the name Bran - the trio manages to create a whole fantastic environment, where that idea that we sometimes have of “something missing to fill in the spaces”, does not exist here.
The atmospheres, the riffs, the details, all very well conceived, avoiding these “hollow spaces”. And the transition from violent lines to calmer moments is done in an almost natural way, as if this were the natural order of things. Undoubtedly these 4 tracks will leave a mark. The acoustic guitars with which they open the last track also show something I value a lot: there is no fear of taking risks, and creating in the way we consider right. Black Metal still lives - although nowadays less so - shrouded in a fog of prohibitions and restrictions.
Those who choose to break these
prohibitions tend to be loved by some, and hated by others in a more visceral
way than others who have taken their Craft a little further. The duality of
evaluating evolution/creation is something that still makes me sick. Back to
Czechia. In conclusion, to exalt the way the trio manages to merge two
seemingly disparate musical lines, in such an organic way, without breaks or
flaws. Yes, I believe that the sound needs work, but the initial idea, which we
have here, leaves me with hope that the next work will be equally strong, and
where this Folk will pontificate side by side with the coldest and sharpest
Black Metal band is able to give us. And it's interesting that I get the idea
that these 4 songs are like a journey, and the last stop is the culmination -
performative, for example - of this one. That
last track is immense, on a final note.
Funeral Harvest - “Redemptio” (Signal
Rex, 2022)
We return, 2 years after the EP was released, to Trondheim, and this time for the debut album. Intensity is, in a very short way, the feeling with which I leave the first listen. Intense, immense. 2 adjectives that try to describe this set of songs, but that glimpse meager. This work is a tremendous, relentless exercise in visceral strength and power. “Princicum et Finis” is a superb example of the creative capacity of this quintet: the changes of rhythm, without ever losing the intensity. Coming from Norway, one would expect that the sound of the same would replicate that sound we are so used to, but in fact the band's sound is bigger than the niche to which we would normally associate it. Not departing much from what was presented in the EP that precedes it, this work shows the band's sound more worked, effectively more mature, with nuances that demonstrate that there was a deepening of the previous work, and "moments of risk", where the musicians lead to its sensitivity to places not yet visited. Lord Nathas continues to lead us through the dark emotions of the human soul with a mastery that few can achieve, keeping the band's sound level high.
I spoke, some time
ago, of feeling honesty in the musical structures presented by some musicians,
as absurd as that sounds; these Funeral Harvest are those examples of... pay
attention to the bass line that opens the “Sorath”, the drums, and the
explosion! Small details that aren't that small; encapsulate, in themselves,
all the creative dexterity that only a few have and manage to release to the
world. Overall, this work is several points above the one presented in the
aforementioned EP, and it seems more melodic to me, although without losing an
ounce of the anger and viscerality that has always characterized the band.
Another proof of the band's audacity is the way they close this album: “Libera
per Ignem”, a beautiful piano piece that rocks us in dark nights, drags us to
those moments that the band captures, in sound. A living melody.
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