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Review Summary: "... No, we have Paysage at home." Filling a piece of computer paper with sketches is a great deal different than attempting to cover a canvas quadruple its size. Not only is there a significant real-estate disparity at play, but there’s a bit more of an added pressure; the all-encompassing nothingness of the blank white expanse looms mockingly over the painter. It takes a great deal of skill to exile that runaway tyrant to a metaphorical Elba and blanket the piece with lush colors or impressive detail. There’s less applause to be had, however, for taking one square of potential intrigue, performing a ‘zoom, enhance!’ operation, and pasting it across the rest of the work. Perhaps it was a neat spectacle at first in its minute grandeur, but when plastered over every facet of the product, its luster quickly fades. What solo project Empyrean Grace offer does little to separate itself both from the boundaries of this analogy and the dominant influence of peers. The artist in question puts aside the computer paper for their initial foray into the black metal market, opting instead to create an album composed solely of one track that clocks in at nearly 30 minutes. Structuring a record in this manner is sure to turn heads—ambitious is a wonderful adjective for a bandcamp description, right next to ‘groundbreaking’ and e x p e r i m e n t a l—yet its ultimately fruitless if the result lacks the promise insinuated in the substantial song duration. Though there is initially a degree of intrigue revolving around the sound Empyrean Grace releases, debut effort Bestowment of the Seraphic Key reveals its entire premise far too early to ever survive a half an hour trek.
Any listener with a passing knowledge of black metal history won’t be at all surprised by what Empyrean Grace relies on: lo-fi, raw black metal that sounds as if an air condition completed the recording duties. Ambient noise and static? Plenty to find. Tremolo riffing aplenty? There’s at least one, and it goes on and on, so a check here as well. Bass guitar? Trick question! It’s just an audial burp at best. Lay over indecipherable harsh vocals and the standard Scandinavian kvlt experience is complete. In a vacuum, this is pleasurable enough, yet the real world is not so forgiving; this road has been trod one too many times, and it has been done better. It’s impossible to stand out from the crowd unless there’ a special factor that injects additional intrigue. At the very least, a tight set of performances could make the effort enjoyable enough to ignore overbearing inspirations, which is often witnessed in the old school death metal revival scene. No such luck for Empyrean Grace, whose approach to their chosen category adheres too closely to modern acts a la the obscure Rhinocervs or the soundscapes of Darkspace. Cramming every bit of songwriting into one rather large creation also hinges on the base premise being strong enough to withhold itself over the duration. Once Bestowment begins, it has, in essence, already ended; the hazy, distorted tremolo guitar rises and falls in the background as subtle synth contributions blend into the static laden atmosphere, but the general lack of dynamic change leads to proceedings feeling stale. On occasion, the song stops for a bit. On other occasions, the song picks up. The general motif remains the same and no real progression is sensed, as the same tremolo riffing shtick inevitably returns.
It is true that the nostalgic tone of the record contains an iota of value. Compositionally speaking, it is difficult to appreciate Bestowment beyond its initial aesthetic since the LP fails to provide much else. When the album terminates its runtime by means of a drawn out, 6-minute fade out, the end result presents no shift in emotion from when the play button was first pressed. Perhaps certain leeway can be offered considering the underground status of the album—this is more of a local Burger King than it is a high-end steakhouse—yet even here it is difficult to allow much excuse. A variety of collectives and solo projects have emerged from unlikely locations to bestow upon the black metal world music that innovates and/or excites. Empyrean Grace could have very well desired to elicit the same reaction, though an overreliance on peers causes the output to be little else than a trip to the past. The fundamentals are in place should another stab at the genre be attempted. Abiding by an elongated format, however, only exposes the immaturity of the songwriting at hand, and thusly diminishes whatever beauty could have been beholden in that first little square.
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Album Rating: 2.5
Quick one for a quick listen. Potential perhaps, but not enough to make this a good album.
Available on bandcamp only here: https://empyreangrace.bandcamp.com/album/bestowment-of-the-seraphic-key
Coffee and comments and criticism and coffee all welcome.
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Nice review boyo but what in the heck is this
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
Average BM. Free 2.5 real-estate!
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lol'd at the summary. thanks
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don't like coffee, but i like your reviews.
way to write a review about a dime-a-dozen album most people wouldn't've even noticed. why go through the trouble?
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
Thanks for reading y'all.
@someone I like reviewing albums that ordinarily wouldn't get attention, whether I enjoyed them or not. If I feel I have something I can write about/contribute to the conversation, I will. In this case, I appreciated the ambition and the general aesthetic, but had complaints otherwise that maybe can help the next album.
Also, by the end of the day, it exposes an obscure album, and it provides only my take on it. Yours could be different and you may find you enjoy it! Never know.
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stalked your ratings and it looks you gave Im Wald a lower rating than this.
you ever think of writing a piece -- maybe not strictly tethered to an album review -- that discusses the recent trend in low quality (IMO, and apparently your "O" also) lo-fi atmospheric BM? I know folks' tastes are what they are, but I feel like new black metal has so much more to offer in its jazz-inflected, dissonant strands (think Imperial Triumphant) than its played out Paysage-like works.
Maybe I'm being close-minded here...
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
I am not the biggest Paysage fan, but their older material has more intrigue to me. Their full length just didn't have any kind of luster to it.
In terms of production trends, it really depends on where you look. I think that modern BM in general has seemed to trend more towards a less lo fi production overall in all honesty. Now it is still hazy, of course, but more easier to hear the different pieces clicking. Hell, even the pass is afforded room in the mix sometimes too.
The issue here isn't necessarily the production in of itself, but that this tactic is well established and has been done better many times before. Although I am not always the biggest fan of "lo fi'd all to hell" production, as you may be able to tell.
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best rev summary
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
I shot high for it
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First half or so of this was pretty dull, but I do rather like those trems in the second half. I will say, a more engaging vocal performance is probably needed if you're gonna try this sorta hella repetitive denser style out but overall this is a good time. It's sorta like if someone took The Great Old Ones but took out all the post- stuff
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Will check.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
Great Old Ones know how to split up songs though, and that post stuff is delish.
Second half is alright, but the ending is a head scratcher.
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TGOO are a top 5 bm band right now
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
not a fan of how these lofi BM albums always push the keys so loud that they just completely overwhelm all the other instruments
but yeah, this was pretty okay whenever it's not doing minutes long fade-ins/outs
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tbf the key thing's been a staple of black metal since the days of emperor. Just one of those things really.
agreed tho that this spends far too much time doing not a lot
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
It gives a shot on occasion, just not enough
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except from really superficial things (ie it's a lo-fi black metal record) i'm not hearing a lot of paysage in this at all. the sonic quality it's going for is very different - it's less melodic, more low end to edge off the rawness, more synth heavy, completely different vocal approach. you've compared it to bands that are very riff-centered whereas it's clear this is more droning in approach. idk, this review comes across as a shit-tonne of hyperbole and cynicism and not a lot of actual critique.
"Structuring a record in this manner is sure to turn heads—ambitious is a wonderful adjective for a bandcamp description, right next to ‘groundbreaking’ and e x p e r i m e n t a l—yet its ultimately fruitless if the result lacks the promise insinuated in the substantial song duration."
like this is just needless cynicism that has nothing to do with the album itself, and tells me nothing about the album from a musical perspective or from any worthwhile contextual perspective that should affect it.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
It's not really meant to be cynical at all, it's more so a humorous jab at bandcamp tagging shenanigans.
I offer critique in describing the fact that this really doesn't go anywhere that hasn't already been traveled. I don't hear the stark differences you describe, as they all feature very similar aesthetics by the end of the day. There's plenty of droning that occurs in those similar artists to an extent. It's a very linear, predictable track that really doesn't go anywhere and has little to offer outside of what is self admitted by the artist as a trip to the past.
Also, the length of an album can definitely factor into how it is perceived, as it can greatly affected how exactly it/individual tracks are structured. That has the potential to mean a lot. I respectfully disagree.
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can i ask what the point is in the jab if it has absolutely nothing to do with the album? they don't use the term 'ambitious' on the bandcamp, let alone 'groundbreaking' or 'experimental', so the jab seems to relate to your cynicism as opposed to anything to do with the album itself, and that cynicism extends to the rest of the review.
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