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| #FOR FANS OF: Ambient Black |
The Swedish one-man project Lustre has become, since its inception, a primordial reference when we speak about atmospheric black metal. Henrik Sunding, better known as Nachtzeit, is undoubtedly a fanatic of black metal, particularly of the most atmospheric oriented one. He has been involved in several projects, each one having its own character, although the devotion to this genre is out of any discussion. I strongly recommend you to check out Ered Wethrin and Nachtzeit, which are my favourite ones.
Going back to Lustre, the particular vision of Henrik for this project was quite clear since the debut album 'Night Spirit' that was released in 2009. Lustre’s music is trance inducing ambient black metal, strongly influenced by classic projects like Burzum, which obviously is a pivotal influence in the genre when we speak about introducing ambience into the black metal scene. What Lustre does is to create quite simple and repetitive structures. Don’t loose your time trying to find complex riffs or tempo changes, this is all about hypnotic sonic creations which transport you out of this reality. And this is what makes Lustre so special. Repetitiveness and simplicity can always be problem, and many would consider that this music lacks of interest after listening to a couple of songs. But somehow, Nachtzeit achieves the unquestionable merit of keeping releasing songs that captivate you, and this is something admirable.
So, after these years and a good amount of albums and EPs, Lustre continues to be quite active and its last offering is the EP entitled 'Reverence', which consists of one song with the same name. Those who don´t like this project won’t find any reason to like it now, but many others, and I include myself in this latest group, can enjoy this new release a lot. Although Lustre’s music hasn’t changed a lot since its creation, it is also unquestionable that Nachtzeit has perfected the formula during the project’s existence. 'Reverence', being a long song, gives a greater room to introduce little tweaks and more arrangements which make the track a great musical experience. Vocally, this song shows a more varied approach. The voices are classic black metal shrieks, but their tone and strength vary through the song, with moments where they sound louder and more intense, as it happens in the mid-second half of the song, in contrast to the initial part. About the arrangements, the simple yet beautiful keys play their usual major role leading the song, but we can also find some tiny touches here and there, especially in the background which enrich the composition. The electronic interlude in the middle of the composition is a nice one, and I find it quite interesting. As you can imagine, they are tiny adds or changes as the music needs to be trance inducing and nothing can distract you from this purpose. But this effort is very welcome for me, as a composition always needs to sound a bit fresh, regardless off its innovative nature of lack of it.
All in all, the new 'Reverence' is a quite inspired one. Lustre has managed to compose a long track which has everything we know and like from this project. The hypnotic atmosphere and marvellous melodies are there, recognizable but still being capable of absorbing our attention and getting our love, and because of this, Lustre is a so unique project. (Alain González Artola)
(Nordvis Produktion - 2023)
Score: 82