Rift - To Quench the Thirst of Wolves

#FOR FANS OF: Atmospheric Black

The Australian band Rift is one of those obscure projects that remained in the shadows so much time since its inception, that some could think the debut album was never going to come. Founded indeed in 2004, Rift has been predominantly the solo-project of Balam, a tremendously active musician, who has been involved in several projects like Drowning the Light or Pestilential Shadows, among the others. Rift released a demo in 2006 but since that time, the project was apparently left at rest, maybe because of Balam’s many projects. Anyway, the musician seems to have spent part of his time composing music for a tentative release, which has finally seen the light. The addition of a permanent vocalist, known as A.S., has for sure played an important role in this final release.

With the support of the Australian label Seance Records, Rift, now as a duo, released its debut album entitled 'To Quench the Thirst of Wolves'. The evocative album artwork is quite representative of the music we will find inside, which I must admit, it has been a nice surprise. For some reason, I was expecting some straightforward and brutal stuff, but contrary to my expectations, Rift plays a black metal rich of atmosphere and with a certain melancholic touch, although it doesn´t lack some epic moments and a necessary degree of fury. In any case, the album escapes from the speedy monotony of some albums as it focuses its main attention on the mid-tempo sections. Production wise, the album has a good balance between vocals, guitars, and the rhythmic base. The raw touch is there, particularly in the guitars with this characteristic “fuzzy” sound, although the riffs are thankfully distinguishable. The atmospheric arrangements in the form of keys in the background are also audible and give an extra point of an evocative ambience. The vocals have the traditional echoing production with a very solid performance. The album begins with strength and speed with the song "Acolyte of Worms". The early perception could make us thing that this is going to be a monotonous album, pace wise. We couldn’t be more wrong. The song rapidly introduces some tempo-changes and a distinctively melodic touch in the guitars, which are composed and executed with a great taste. The tempo varies between the aforementioned fast sections and the increasingly present mid and slow tempo sections, including some nice interludes which make this song even more immersive. The contrast between fury and atmosphere is even greater in the following track, "Night Glare". This one is pure atmospheric black as its very best. Captivating keys embrace the rest of the instruments, giving profundity and atmosphere to the song as the galloping guitars and drums progressively slow down their initial impetuosity. Here, we can find one of those moments where Rift sounds even epic with a very nice guitar riff, an excellent track without any doubt. The longest tracks, like the self titled one and "Posthumous Rapture", focuses specially in the mid-tempo sections, although they introduce some variations which include interludes or slightly more vibrant parts. All this is made with the purpose of keeping the listener interested and, at the same time, creating a hypnotic piece of music. On the other hand, tracks like "Innards of Malevolence" and "Sermon of Blades" are the heaviest ones, with speedier sections, here more prevalent than in the rest of the album. Despite of this, the melodic and atmospheric essence of the whole album is still retained here, so these songs can be seen as the spiciest side of a dish with different flavours.

'To Quench the Thirst of Wolves' is definitively an excellent debut and a pleasant surprise. The combination of rawness, melody and atmosphere is excellently executed. The somber tone of the compositions is enriched by a beautiful atmosphere and some small touches of majesty. Highly recommended. (Alain González Artola)

(Seance Records - 2021)
Score: 83

https://seancerecords.bandcamp.com/album/to-quench-the-thirst-of-wolves

Selenite - Mahasamadhi

#FOR FANS OF: Funeral Doom

From the second half of the '90s, funeral doom has seen a constant growth of new bands which defined the core elements of a quite extreme genre. Slowness, abysmal vocals and super heavy riffs are a constant in a quite rigid genre, though it still leaves a little room for the bands that try to add their own touch. Anyway, it is quite difficult to stand out from the rest and many bands sound too similar between them. This initial difficulty wasn´t however an impediment for the Austrian musician Stefan Traunmüller to create a new project called Selenite, back in 2015. If anything has to be remarked about Stefan is that he is a super active musician, as he is involved in several projects, being some of them especially interesting bands like Rauhnåcht or The Negative Bias, among the others. Thanks to his different musical approaches in those projects, it is quite clear that he has enough talent and many ideas to create a funeral doom metal project, which could be reasonably interesting.

'Mahasamadhi' is the result of his four years working and it is indeed an album which doesn´t escape from the core sound of the genre, though it has enough elements to make it interesting. First of all, the concept of the lyryics has a strong Eastern influence, trying to avoid the quite typical lyrics of the genre. Still, the atmosphere is gloomy and dark as anyone could expect when you listen to a funeral doom metal album. Thankfully, Selenite is a band which tries to add plenty of atmospheric touches, making the album more interesting. Stefan manages to avoid the monolithic and sometimes quite boring compositions of some bands that sorely focus on repetitive riffs, without adding anything special. The songs have, unsurprisingly, a very slow pace where the ultra heavy riffs and the expected growls have a constant presence. Anyway, from the very beginning, Selenite creates a quite special atmosphere with, for example, some chants with a ritualistic touch, like it occurs in the album opener "Chanelling Chants From Beyond". Moreover, the background keys have also an important presence in their form of church-esque organs or eerie keys, which enhance the mystic atmosphere wraping the songs. Vocally, the album has the aforementioned growls, which sound quite good, though they don´t reach the level of deepness of another purely funeral doom metal projects. Apart from that, Stefan introduces some clean vocals, which try to sound evocative, like it happens in the mainly instrumental track "Hidden Presence". As another enriching element, we can hear some female vocals, which have a quite relevant presence in the track "Final Reckoning". All these efforts are used in order to widen the musical spectrum of the album and make it more varied. With regards to the guitars, the cavernous riffs have a major role, though Selenite tries to add some melodic riffs, which are quite good and also help to create songs easier to keep in mind. Heaviness and memorable melodies are not incompatible and its balance always helps to forge a more enjoyable work.

All in all, Selenites’s debut album 'Mahasamadhi' is a pretty good effort of funeral doom with a strong atmospheric and a ritualistic approach. This touch helps to make the album a quite enjoyable listen. 'Mahasamadhi' may appeal the fans of the genre, leaving us waiting what this project can offer in the future. (Alain González Artola)

(Seance Records - 2019)
Score: 78

https://seancerecords.bandcamp.com/album/mahasamadhi