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Band: Hidden By Ivy
Album title: Acedia
Release date: 4 September 2015
Label: Alchera Visions
The musical output of Hidden By Ivy is hard to put in brackets, but what those two artists do is certainly giving some shivers down the spine with their incredible sense to compose refined and highly emotive music. There are found many different elements, from post-rock basis, to incredible subtle layers of dark wave, art pop, gothic elements, shoegaze, even cold wave, ambient, some jazz, a bit of folk and yet much more, everything put together into such an exquisite melancholic flow of refreshing meditative sounds. Acedia is a blistering attack for your senses. It has so much emotion, meditative soundscapes, melancholic catchy melodies and heartrending vocal arrangements that is hard not to be overwhelmed by it. Those constant variations in sound and intriguing art pop/rock compositional elements used all over are certainly making this album one of a kind. There's that vintage influence present, but the album sounds still very modern and fresh, also because of a genious production and final mix. Every single song, like as well the album as a whole has that hard to obtain pathos which captivates the listener from the start till the end and makes the one wanting to return for more.
Read a full review HERE
Bands: Apocryphos, Kammarheit, Atrium Carceri
Album title: Onyx
Release date: 08 September 2015
Label: Cryo Chamber
Onyx is one of the dark ambient albums that we will still be speaking of in 10 years. The level of workmanship on Onyx can't be understated. The intricacy of each layer is astounding. There is attention to the minutest details given throughout the album. It has no beginning and no ending; it stays with you once you have experienced it. One track will induce a calm meditative state while the next will unnerve you just enough to feel the evolving emotions yet not be jarred from the experience. Onyx is an instant classic of the dark ambient genre. The talent of the individual artists throughout cannot be understated, and the mastering work and vision of Simon Heath bringing it all together at the end is possibly the best yet on Cryo Chamber. Onyx is a nonstop pleasure from beginning to end and a must have album for any fan of the dark ambient genre. The dynamics on some tracks and slow progressions on others showcase the breadth of sound arrangements which fit into dark ambient and the ability to blend them all together for one epic release. This album is sure to send reverberations through the genre, as it has through me.
Read a full review HERE
Band: Dronny Darko & protoU
Album title: Earth Songs
Release date: 28 July 2015
Label: Cryo Chamber
Dronny Darko, the drone ambient artist from Kiev (Ukraine) is known for his abyssal drones, combined with eerie field-recordings, samples and voices. His previous release, Outer Tehom (released in November 2014 by Cryo Chamber), was quite spine-chilling. Earth Songs is a collaboration between Dronny Darko and protoU, a new-comer to the Cryo Chamber label. Earth Songs follows our planet earth from the first explosion, 13.8 billion years ago, to humanity’s final ascent from Earth in 2135. This is a huge change in direction from Dronny Darko's last release, showing the dynamics and promise not only of Dronny Darko, but also of protoU. Dronny Darko & protoU leave us wondering what will happen next! Earth Songs is a dynamic and highly recommended dark ambient album for those who prefer something more relaxing, but still packing a punch.
Read a full review HERE
Band: Amorphis
Album title: Under The Red Cloud
Release date: 4 September 2015
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
The new studio effort from the band brings us ten tracks, where we can find all of the most important elements that characterized Amorphis's music; there are tons of catchy melodic riffs, melancholic passages, folk insertions, aggressive and brutal parts, perfect guitar leads, progressive elements and yet much more. The sound is dense, in a way similar to the one on the previous album, but there's to be found kind of a dynamics that we were used to hear on their legendary album Elegy from 1996, and still there's that catchy melodic factor that was perfectly used before on almost each of their albums, but perfected for example on Skyforger (2009). Under The Red Cloud is maybe the most dynamic album the band released since 1996 and the ultimate proof for that comes already with the somehow typical new era Amorphis track - album titled opener, but nevertheless it shows that the band has enough courage to take everything one level higher. It has it all we should expect from the band of a such caliber, they sound more devoted into what they are doing than ever and the result is highly captivating, melodic, dense, versatile and surprisingly dark sound, which in my opinion has the power to bring also some new fans to their devoted fan base.
Read a full review HERE
Band: Myrkur
Album title: M
Release date: 21 August 2015
Label: Relapse Records
On M Myrkur offers eleven tracks of haunting ambiances, short tracks with only one that exceeds five minutes in lenght, but each one of those brings forth quite an interesting blend of styles. M is a very dark album in its essence, it shows the savage side of nature which shines in beauty and Myrkur is an observer of all that. The ambiances go from some very ice cold ones to those warm ethereal parts where Myrkur with kind of a delicacy of features caresses the listeners soul. M shines from many aspects, it's a well composed album that shows both, the emotional, traditional and savage side of nature lover - Amalie Bruun. It also shows a huge talent of the composer and Amalie should be respected just for that. Her pop side does her many favors here, she knows how to make songs catchy when needed and it's nothing strange that Kristoffer Rygg aka Garm of the legendary Ulver co-produced this album and the job done is nearly to perfect. It adds kind of grimness, density and rough edge to the whole thing by reaching to get that old-school sound. Still, it doesn't sound too unpolished, the sound is clear enough.
Read a full review HERE
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