Review Summary: Makes you want to go for the throat… your own throat, that is.
I’m going to be blunt here – there aren’t many bands that pull off the whole “depressive black metal” thing very well at all. It’s almost sad how so many bands either try to sound like Burzum and Strid and fail completely or ironically adopt pop influences and wind up sounding like they took too many opiates while listening to Joy Division and forgot what type of music they align themselves with.
Oubliette on the other hand, a one-man outfit from the UK, represents what seems to be a small minority of tradition-minded practitioners of depressive black metal. This is black metal violently stripped to its bare essentials, and then given some ornate jewelry to wear so it doesn’t feel ugly. While the melodies here are delightfully bleak and saddening, the songs themselves are constructed with the straightforward simplicity that black metal is known for: pounding drums, almost constant tremolo picking, and feral shrieking – all for the better, in my humble opinion. Purists and hipsters alike will find plenty here to revel in, though I hesitiate to say that there's something here for everyone... this is a black metal album, after all.
However, like this review,
Nadezda is very, very short. Even though it barely gets past the 17 minute mark it gets its point across very well. Anyone who is frustrated with the severe lack of quality output in the depressive black metal movement would do themselves some good to track down this gem.
