Deep-pression

New Moon

I showed them a piece of the universe,

I showed them a piece of a scar,

Where the colours were the most meadowlike,

All stories start somewhere, usually ending nowhere,

Don’t believe! Act!! (Even if it’s poor acting,)

Leave the footprints,

Leave them on a new moon.

Glacial Sun

Cold blue suns hide

Beyond burning horizons,

My eyes stare at the wastelands,

And I listen to skeletal wings

Of hungry birds, fluttering in grey clouds

Above the cold rocks,

Frozen rivers of insanity floating

Down the spine of this fucked-up reality,

We welcome the skies

While embracing dead corpses,

In the mud

Cold blue lies…

On the coldest top I am perched,

It is the highest one!

A great falling-downwards has started,

Magnificent sunsets cry in my chest,

I open my veins on the hill

Under the glacial sun and frozen vultures…

Snow on a Bone

Flickering with silver lights,

Making sound (in my mind),

Snowflakes, invaders from the sky,

Our uniforms are wet

And it’s going to get cold,

Lightning is on the horizon,

Trees fall down with noise,

We crawl in frozen mud

Covered with the first wintry snows,

Wounds are pink, without pain when

The whole body is embraced by cold,

When no more is the soul

And the mind is just a greedy, scared organ

Making a mess of its muscles,

We sleep in the trenches,

Starlit skies…

Above, and lastly,

The last thing I saw,

I can’t swear,

But it was snow on a bone.

Dead to the Bone

She is in the air

Smelling through moisture

And the last evening’s thoughts

Left in the area

Where no wind blows,

Dead-water brings no life

Drowned in colourless oceans,

Sorrows breed,

Shadows rise,

Motionless limbs,

Pale, almost grey

On death-cold ice.

Based on the lyrics by "RH-"

The Misanthropic Apathy

Band: The Misanthropic Apathy

Album: Escort by Nights

Genre: Black Metal/DSBM

Country: Ukraine

Year: 2013

Link

I picked this album because of the cover art. The band's name is so well drawn, in a tree-like style that's unreadable. This band hails from the Ukraine and released its first album, Escort by Nights, in 2013. This fresh black metal/DSBM has a good sound.

It definitely has somewhat of a "Summoning" quality, in that it carries an epic rhythm and high vocal flavor along with it. The progression could be said to be somewhat lighter than typical DSBM or metal like Trist. However, this is in the sense of a sort of "winter" feeling like Coldworld. There are some riffs that just seem to randomly appear and be misplaced, but overall the soundscape maintains its ambiance. It will echo the more melancholic moments of good DSBM acts and border on the sounds of Happy Days but without the annoying vocals. 

This is a chill album of DSBM ambiance with some rough troughs. You will definitely get an old DSBM feel.

6/10 for Black Metal

A Premonition - Never Ends + Destino

Band: A Premonition

Album: [Never Ends] EP

Genre:  Black/Doom Metal

Country: Argentina

Year: 2012

Link

Immediately we get a distant guitar opening, brooding. Then the metal starts. The vocals stand out, filtering deeply to do with the music. Not this stereotypical shrieking. This is the genre-metal at its finest. DSBM has returned. 

The track "Sueños" is reminiscent of classical DSBM, being slower paced and more nostalgic. The next one, "The Nothingness", is pretty much straightforward black metal, my least favorite since it feels stitched together more than the others, but it's not bad. Quite on the contrary, since its elements are superb.  The last track, "Fallen", it a slow and steady climb along a DSBM riff. Something almost feels triumphant about it.

I recommend this for your library. It's the best I've heard in a long time.

A Premonition has around 22 albums out, 4 of which are splits. Their songs are in Spanish. I'll be reviewing their albums and giving links as I go through them.

 ***

Band: A Premonition

Album: Destino

Genre: Black/Doom Metal

Country: Argentina

Year: 2013

Link

This album differs from their previous album in its more gliding, DSBM feel over the raw feelings in Never Ends. There is a lot more quiet to be contemplated on. With the label of "shoegaze" on Black Trist Metal, I thought I would be getting something similar to Raincity Longway which also released an album just last year and are Argentines. But it's just brooding. The closest thing we get to shoegaze is the track is "Marcas del Tiempo", which is really just awesome. The drums are active and alternating, echoing in this almost triumphant progression through hopelessness. A piano added only marks the depth of the guitars by contrast, which assemble together far past the simple construction of typical DSBM songs (that is, a drum and a guitar). Real thought and soul went into this, a trve soul. This supersedes the other songs by its majesty and its ability to take you on its journey. 

This is more refined than Never Ends and I recommend it as well for slightly different reasons. 

I really don't want to rate these because... you should just listen to them.

Raincity Longway - Sacrifice

Band: Raincity Longway

Album: Sacrifice

Genre: Ambient

Country: Argentina

Year: 2012

Link

The first track is a simple ambient background like on a coastal town or in a city, except everything is so soft and low that nothing stands out. There are no concrete sounds. When the second track starts we get brooding piano and drums making a melancholy statement, still slow in rhythm and contemplative in emptiness. Very simple music so far, repetitive melodies. Third track is more “icy” so to speak and nostalgic, with a childlike tune of cool reminiscence. A cool memory. Again just another sort of low-key soundscape with piano, drum and background ambiance. Midway it starts to sound like the middle of a God is an Astronaut song.

The track “Sacrifice” is a bit more melodic. Again, this album is sounding like God is an Astronaut but more laid back. I would recommend this for nostalgia and reminiscence, since it generally broods a melancholy similar to that of a cold or cool overcast day, on the edge of a city or in stillness. One word to describe this album is pretty, as well as pristine, as well as simple. Sort of like air made visible because of a cool humidity, a fog, or a slightly fogged-over window. This might make a good BGM for a visual novel. There is even a hopeful element emergent in some parts.

Having gotten it from Black Trist Metal, I can only describe it as “ambient” with any regards to black metal. Buzum’s "Illa Tidandi" is covered as the last track, so I can see the homage to “black metal”. There’s nothing remarkable about this album except its simplicity. 

This seems to be another installment in Latin America's "ambient" scene, like Failure's album Perfect Isolation from before.

Rated 7/10 for Ambient for simplicity and nostalgic ambiance (non-metal)