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Band: The Stone
Album title: Teatar Apsurda
Release Date: 9 December 2018
Label: Mizantropeon Records
Tracklist:
01. Gavranovo
02. Mrtvog Negativ
03. Moj Grob
04. Nuklearan
05. Ja, Car I Bog
06. Harmonija u haosu
07. Teatar apsurda
I feel very happy and why not say flattered when I put my hands on an album from an ancient band that still keeps alive the spirit of an entire era of true black metal. The Stone is not only a band playing black metal, the sonic journey of these masters is based on true and cunning works of dedication, which you can see through the vast number of demos, EP's and albums released so far; their first demo, Serbian Woods was released back in 1997, while their debut album, Some Wounds Bleed Forever, came out in 2000.
These Serbians have released their previous album, Nekroza, in 2014, a very well received album among the legions of extreme metal and now came once again with an opus, their eighth album, Teatar Apsurda, through the label Mizantropeon Records. The Stone have a peculiar way to play what is dark and sinister, keeping alive the traditional style of the second black metal wave, they subtly add more modern elements that make their music quite unusual. The atmosphere of the album is dense and terrifying, the speed is a constant that pleases from the first track on. We can find some death and even thrash metal components that appear in some riffs here and there, also symphonic elements, the melodies are quite macabre while the vocals are harsh and poisoned screams, with lyrics completely sung in their mother tongue.
Teatar Apsurda is a blast of ominous chaos in seven tracks with a running time a bit over 48 minutes. Because of the quality they have, they could easily meake even more extensive tracks. During your listening delight you'll be amazed by furious blast beat drumming patterns, quite deep out of ordinary shrieking vocals, a wide variety of ambient, melodic and shredding guitar riffs, and much more. The theme, lyrics, instruments, the dense atmosphere, everything comes together in order to explode inside the mind in pure blackened joy.
Starting with the track named "Gavranovo" and following with "Mrtvog Negativ", these two tracks are incredible blasts of captiving darkness, they knew how to conquer me with ferocious riffs and an absurd venomous drumming. "Moj Grob" is a scary sonic journey through the sick mind of these masters of horrors. And the subsequent "Nuklearan" and "Ja, Car I Bog" squeeze your nerves and push you more deep into insanity.
Overall, Teatar Apsurda was a great release to close 2017 with a golden key to the raw and old routes of black metal. A fast, heavy, very dark album that is offered to legions of followers of the traditional style. The whole thing of this album is bringing the essence to the most nihilistic pinnacles, where the craft meets the darkness and the dark emanates the art. But make no mistake, as I said at the beginning of my review, contemporary elements have been added to make it more stylish, but again, subtly and without losing the tone of the second wave. So grab this album, put on your headphones and allow yourself to be dragged mercilessly to the limits of the terrifying journey afforded by these Serbian black metal masters.
Review written by: Felin Frost
Rating: 8,5/10
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