“A remarkably wide ranging album.”
A brief but satisfying debut album from this Moroccan entity delivers a broad survey of late second wave black metal, connecting the iconic Nordic style with references to the trancelike pacing of Ukrainian material such as Drudkh, although early Darkthrone sticks out as the most obvious influence. The production is raw but not excessively so, leaning into a foggy atmosphere via the layered guitars and predictable momentum of the drums. Vocals sit toward the background if they are present at all, – lengthy passages of this album are instrumental – offering a high end obscurantist howl.
Where this album excels is in its ability to do more with less, which is the hallmark of quality black metal in this style. Adjacent to ambient although still embedded in a rhythmic impetus, each simple idea flows intuitively to the next, offering just enough contrast between variation and repetition to make the listener feel as if they have been taken on a journey, but it does so without the need to inject a surplus of additional ideas (each track is relatively short).
Tonally the mood is both mournful but defiant, drawing on a well of reverential naturalism. The music feels both intimately emotive yet sparse and broad in reach, despite the relatively modest presentation. The album is bookended by two clean guitar passages constructed from graceful arpeggios that set the tone perfectly, harkening back to something like I Shalt Become’s debut Wanderings. But equally the music embodies a mournful, tragedian quality that provokes a degree of pathos within the listener. The lasting impression invoking solitude, sparsity, and reflection as opposed to oppressive darkness. A remarkably wide ranging album despite its limited length and the laser-like focus on a specific set of compositional tools.
