Music Review : Caïna – Setter of Unseen Snares (2015)

Music Review : Caïna – Setter of Unseen Snares (2015, Broken Limbs)

The term one-man-band is well known in the black metal genre and Caïna is an essential representation of this form of metal and band from Manchester, UK. Setter of Unseen Snares is a short album inspired by Matthew McConaughey’s character in the hit television show True Detectives. Filled with a couple of samples of the monologues of the aforementioned character, Setter of Unseen Snares is not your typical one dimension black metal record. Playing with the boundaries of metalcore, dream pop/shoegaze, drone, and post-rock Andrew Curtis-Brignell makes a textured album of experimentation of satisfaction in its overall tenure.

The six songs are imbricated and form a massive ensemble of melancholy, brutality, and ugly beauty. Yes ugly beauty in its form of black metal vocals and shoegaze guitar. A sound popularized by Deafheaven and their masterpiece Sunbather, Setter of Unseen Snares is possibly one of the best metal albums and even one of the best albums of 2015. It brings us into dark places with simple compositions and essential brutality.

8.7

Music Review : Alcest – Shelter (2014)

 

Music Review : Alcest – Shelter (2014)

Alcest takes his origins in black metal but slowly evolved into a shoegaze act playing on My Bloody Valentine’s field more than Burzum’s. The album Shelter is an entire dedication to trippy rock and shoegaze. Since Deafheaven’s Sunbather, which was a perfected version of BM and shoegaze in 2013, many BM bands have crossed the lined of purist kvlt BM.

Alcest is now far from its BM roots but still in a territory of its own. At first it is a bit surprising to find a bleak comparison other than the aforementioned bands. But I would reference Katatonia and its latest entries of rock infused with darker landscapes. It is the atmosphere and feeling as a whole that still makes this a somber record that could entice fans of the early Alcest.

It is an interesting record for its whole texture but its monotony and lack of flavour is too heavy in the balance compared with its ambition that is limited by the change of style that Alcest has occured. It is a grey album that transpire a melancholy and a spleen that is not elevated by its music and lacks in overall tenure and a monochrome structure that sinks slowly the record from song to song.

It is an entry into a genre that is difficult to master and a miss that could not be a hit but a lesson that experiences are permitted and an average album doesn’t sink a band but a series could.  

6.1

Music Review : Deafheaven – Sunbather (2013)

Music Review : Deafheaven – Sunbather (2013, Deathwish Inc.)

American Black Metal has gained respect since a few years and with the exception of Absu from Texas, few BM acts have been recognized as worth the genre. In the recent years, Nachtmystium has been respected with their revisits of Pink Floyd’s Meddle atmosphere and textures with Assassins : Black Meddle, Part I. Put aside the crap from Blake Judd. There’s also Wolves in the Throne Room that are one of the most interesting BM acts from the US.

Lately, with easier ways to record, a bunch of talented and untalented musicians have formed Black Metal bands and the quantity of BM releases has increased considerably. Amongst this genre many imitators of Darkthrone, Immortal, Satyricon were appearing but few have taken elements of the genre to elevate them in a more personal approach to music and adapt it.

Deafheaven is a brighter star in the sky when it comes to the creativity of their music. They elevated their sound close to the elegance of the early BM releases of Ulver (Nattens Madrigal for example). Not afraid to indulge more than wrath and angered occult and satanist lyrics. This era of BM is dead and now laughable. The most enduring acts of the genre have let Satanism and treat about humanity, nihilism, mythology, littérature, philosophy, and the darker side of the human mind. With Deafheaven themes are closer to a North American mindset and are introspective, melancholic, and less conventional BM.

Structured with four songs and three interludes, Sunbather is a beautiful yet dark journey into modern BM with elements of shoegazing and psychedelic rock. Unlike many American Black Metal bands Deafheaven is no carbon copy of its influence. Many people can make a BM record but few can master this music and actually make something refreshing and this appealing.

After a few listens it is easy to state that even if I missed this release in 2013, I would definitely put it on my best of the year 2013 list.

8.9