- Apr 5, 2003
- 2,668
- 2
- 38
Striborg - Embittered Darkness / Isle De Morts
Southern Lord - Sunn60 - 2006
By Brandon Strader
Embittered Darkness starts with a nice little clean guitar part repeated for nearly 3 minutes without change with static in the background. Eventually the first real song begins, the 11-minute behemonth entitled "Wrapped In A Cacoon Out Of Harms Way". The guitar tone is fuzzy to the point of almost being unhearable. It's got a good bit of reverb on it that almost resembles the sound of a string tone through a keyboard. The screams are not so well-done, and they are smothered with some kind of warbly effect and reverb which hides the flaws a good bit. The song drags on quite a bit, as if it were doom metal in a lo-fi kvlt black metal wrapping.
Needless to say at this point, the recording of Embittered Darkness is kvlt as heck, in a bad way. There's an acoustic interlude and the guitar is out of tune pretty bad. The shorter songs are even more repetitive than the long songs, usually just repeating a certain riff over and over without any kind of song structure. Is it just me or does "Race of Apathy" start to sound like a happy, almost dance-able song once you get used to it repeating over and over? Embittered Darkness follows this same formula throughout the whole album with nothing interesting going on at all. It's got to be possibly some of the worst lo-fi black metal ever.
Isle De Morts starts off a bit better, with some good ambiance in the intro track, and slightly distorted keyboard tones. The songs are a lot shorter on Isle De Morts and have more changes. The vocals don't have any reverb or warbly effect, and can be heard very clearly... Sure, they're not performed any better than before but the sound is a LOT better. The guitars are still fuzzy as heck, but they're mixed a bit better and can be heard pretty good. The drum kit sound sucks and lacks punch, which makes the music suffer a good bit (the same can be said about Embittered Darkness.)
The vocals are the loudest thing on Isle De Morts, and the mix is pretty terrible. Granted, lo-fi black metal is known for it's terrible production, but the music here really doesn't sound like it should be lo-fi black, instead it sounds like something that has forcefully been shoved into the template of lo-fi black metal. This stuff could have easily been recorded with normal production and a good sound, and been a lot better. Some of the guitar leads sound like they are pretty good, but they're so dang hard to hear on both releases. Plenty of potential hidden within these releases.
2/10 - Embittered Darkness
4/10 - Isle De Morts
UM's Review Rating Scale
Official Striborg Website
Official Southern Lord Website
Southern Lord - Sunn60 - 2006
By Brandon Strader
Embittered Darkness starts with a nice little clean guitar part repeated for nearly 3 minutes without change with static in the background. Eventually the first real song begins, the 11-minute behemonth entitled "Wrapped In A Cacoon Out Of Harms Way". The guitar tone is fuzzy to the point of almost being unhearable. It's got a good bit of reverb on it that almost resembles the sound of a string tone through a keyboard. The screams are not so well-done, and they are smothered with some kind of warbly effect and reverb which hides the flaws a good bit. The song drags on quite a bit, as if it were doom metal in a lo-fi kvlt black metal wrapping.
Needless to say at this point, the recording of Embittered Darkness is kvlt as heck, in a bad way. There's an acoustic interlude and the guitar is out of tune pretty bad. The shorter songs are even more repetitive than the long songs, usually just repeating a certain riff over and over without any kind of song structure. Is it just me or does "Race of Apathy" start to sound like a happy, almost dance-able song once you get used to it repeating over and over? Embittered Darkness follows this same formula throughout the whole album with nothing interesting going on at all. It's got to be possibly some of the worst lo-fi black metal ever.
Isle De Morts starts off a bit better, with some good ambiance in the intro track, and slightly distorted keyboard tones. The songs are a lot shorter on Isle De Morts and have more changes. The vocals don't have any reverb or warbly effect, and can be heard very clearly... Sure, they're not performed any better than before but the sound is a LOT better. The guitars are still fuzzy as heck, but they're mixed a bit better and can be heard pretty good. The drum kit sound sucks and lacks punch, which makes the music suffer a good bit (the same can be said about Embittered Darkness.)
The vocals are the loudest thing on Isle De Morts, and the mix is pretty terrible. Granted, lo-fi black metal is known for it's terrible production, but the music here really doesn't sound like it should be lo-fi black, instead it sounds like something that has forcefully been shoved into the template of lo-fi black metal. This stuff could have easily been recorded with normal production and a good sound, and been a lot better. Some of the guitar leads sound like they are pretty good, but they're so dang hard to hear on both releases. Plenty of potential hidden within these releases.
2/10 - Embittered Darkness
4/10 - Isle De Morts
UM's Review Rating Scale
Official Striborg Website
Official Southern Lord Website
