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██▌ Artist...: Veldes ░▐██▌
░▐██ Album....: Storm Borrower ░██▌░
▓▐██ Year.....: 2018 ▓▐██▓
▓▐██ Rel.Date.: 2021-05-02 ░▐██▓
▐██ Genre....: Black Metal ██▌░
░ ██▌ Label....: Razed Soul Productions ██▌
▐██ Source...: CD ▐██
░▐██▌ Type.....: Reissue ▐██▌░
▓▄████ Quality..: VBR, 44.1kHz, Joint Stereo ████▌░
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1. The Songless Forest 10:29
2. Storm Borrower 10:58
3. Where Rivers Turn to Ashes 12:06
4. Desolation Heir 8:36
5. (unlisted track) 10:58
------
53:07
For a guy who isnÆt the most headstrong fan of black metal, I can say
this atmospheric / ambient black metal output by the Slovenian
mastermind, Tilen Simon, was a dark, tragic, and in parts lengthy,
journey through desolation and agonizing sorrow within murkiest realms
of nature. And that is most definitely a huge plus.
The opening track (The Songless Forest) kicks off on acoustic guitar and
on the background of atmospheric orchestration, bringing to mind some
most touching atmospheric doom metal melodies of bands such as Agalloch
and Clouds (or many other bands, depending on your personal experience).
The song then soars up to a mid-tempo riff and climaxes with an epic
wholesome fierce black metal eruption around the mid-song; this mood
takes you on and drags you to the cloudy vales of deepest pains and
leaves you safe and sound on the ground again at the end, though you
still carry the scars on your soul.
Then comes the title track, of which you rightfully have higher
expectations. Just like the previous song, we have an ambient opening to
this song too. The guitar work on this song is a tad more melodic than
the previous work. Vocals are then added to intensify the wincing
atmosphere of the song. And just like other tracks, the growling vocals
nail it where it should. We are presented with quality black metal
singing which sits elegantly on the setting of instruments like a jewel
upon a crown à of thorns and spikes. And the height then meets a
sorrowful low to ease your aching soul only to lift it up once more and
leave you in a state of awe.
My favorite track on the album is neither of the above, but the third
track (Where Rivers Turn to Ashes). A 12Æ:07ö voyage through the heart
of nature, flying among the clouds, standing amidst the trees, floating
on the calmest oceans, hiking the toughest peaks and rolling down the
steepest, grass-covered valleys. You should NOT LISTEN to this song, you
should EXPERIENCE it, like a drug-induced trance. You will lose track of
time and space. It truly is a transcendental experience.
As if you havenÆt taken enough of this celestial gift, the bonus track
(Desolation Heir) -yes, a bonus track on an EP- comes along. Primarily
in the same vein as the previous works (nothing to complain about, in
fact highly appreciated), you extend your welcome for more than 8
minutes and a half. ItÆs your final chance to savor well-executed
musicianship, in all aspects, from drumming to guitars and even vocals
and piano (keyboard). Tilen Simon once again proves his dexterity to
handle all sorts of instruments and to push further forward his one man
band.
ItÆs a top-shelf album through and through but in some parts, it feels a
bit too lengthy and monotonous. There are also a few instances where the
piano is played rough and inaptly. What you need to do now is set aside
53 minutes of your time, switch off all the devices that might distract
you and bathe in the dark aesthetics of this music from the cloudy
forests of Slovenia.
---
Here Veldes man Tilen Simon delivers what he does best: epic flowing
atmospheric BM of fury, melancholy and longing with catchy pop melodies.
"The Songless Forest" sets the pace and the tone for the rest of this
album to follow: majestic riffs performed on noisy raw BM guitars over
and over, crashing repeatedly like waves roaring and rolling over onto a
beach, over insanely flippy machine percussion rhythms while piano
melodies waltz by without a care in the world, and in the far distance a
harsh vocal rages, as if fighting and resisting that ultimate
dissolution we all must face one day. The overall atmosphere is of
regret and sorrow alternating with fury. It's as if a phantom is ranting
and raving against the unfairness of the universe as it slowly and
relentlessly crushes the spirit being, yet despite (or because of) that
oncoming death the spirit vents its pointless anger all the more
intensely.
The title track is a more reflective and subdued track but paradoxically
seems the more powerful with slashing guitar surges and biting acid
vocals. Later parts of the music can be chunky with riffs peeling off in
slabs and clunky piano wandering all over the music while background
synthesiser sighs away. (I have the feeling the piano should be a bit
more subdued and less clanky here to preserve the sorrowing mood.) On
the whole this is a very impressive piece of immersive atmospheric music
of sadness and heartfelt yearning for something lost forever. "Where
Rivers Turn to Ashes" is an upbeat and happy track (considering its
title) with jaunty piano-playing, blasts of scourging BM guitars and
equally harsh rasping vocals. I must confess I am no fan of the piano
melodies here - they remind me of saccharine Japanese anime films of
doomed teenage romances, of the kind directed by Makoto Shinkai - but
thankfully they are not the dominant element as the more melodic
post-metal guitar takes over and carries the emotion and mood for much
of the rest of the track with the BM guitars as a backing chorus. For
what it does, the track is rather too drawn out in its last few minutes
and some editing could have made it much tighter and forceful, and less
sugary in parts.
Bonus track "Desolation Heir", while a pleasant song in itself, adds
nothing new and seems a bit muddled at times: it jumps from sad and
sorrowful to happy or angry in ways that to this listener don't make
much sense. As with "Where Rivers ..." the track runs out of puff after
the halfway point and keeps going and going, subjecting listeners to a
lot of unnecessary sugar piano tunes.
Without the bonus tracks, the three-track EP would be complete in itself
and showcases Veldes' style very well. The piano playing could be
better: in some parts of the music it could be much gentler than it is,
and the melodies can be very sappy. The rest of the music is very good,
especially in the first half of this release. If Simon can bottle the
inspirations that led him to create a track like "The Songless Forest"
and keep that balance for future recordings, Veldes itself will be an
inspiration in emotional atmospheric BM.
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