Deafest/Livimørket - Split (2009)

After enjoying the recent Dark Totality demo from the UK's Livimørket, I decided to check out this split with US Deafest, and was pleasantly surprised here by both bands. Each is offering two tracks, for a total playtime of 33 minutes.

Deafest hail from Colorado; they've already issued a few full-lengths, and appeared on some splits. They play a brand of spacious, atmospheric black metal with guiding melodies, and conceptually exploring the North American wilderness. "From Subterranean Seeds to Supporting the Sky" begins with a creeping, beautiful landfill of raw guitars, slowly transforming riffs over crashing live drums, which often makes breaks into faster territory. It's a glorious track even without vocals, but I feel they might have enriched it. "The Coyote and the Valley" features tranquil, lush acoustics and driving melodic passages, and there are a few harsh vocals. The tracks are certainly good enough that I want to check out more from the band, since this is my first exposure.

Livimørket offer a two-parter, the "Crucible of Spirits", and while their style is a bit more distant and grim, their guitar tones and occasional use of wondrous acoustics do match up with Deafen's material. Both halves of "Crucible of Spirits" add up to 20 minutes length and embark the listener on a sonic excursion through distant, violent landscapes that are often breached for minimal passages with scintillating post-rock acoustic atmosphere and light percussion. The second half of the track is heavier, transforming from slower, doom rhythms draped in melody to a driving passage which feels like it's being played at you through a cavern high in a windy mountain range.

Both of these young bands excel here, and any fan of independently produced black metal that balances depressive emotions and an exploration of the natural world would be wise to check them out. A very tasteful split, relaxing yet never void of hints at the greater darkness to come.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

http://www.deafestband.com/
http://www.myspace.com/livimorket

Livimørket - Dark Totality [DEMO] (2009)

From what information I can gather, Dark Totality is the 2nd demo of a UK black/ambient project known as Livimørket. There is but one individual handling all the writing/instruments, and a single track, "Dark Totality" which is nearly 40 minutes in length.

Naturally, the key to a demo like this is its ability to draw you in and immerse you, which Livimørket does possess. The first 12 minutes consist of haunting tones that hover behind the sounds of wind and rain. After this, a distant and depressive torrent of atmospheric black metal which is almost as much a part of the troubled landscape as the rain itself. Very subtle shifts in notation construct a hypnotic, suicidal effect below the tormented, howling vocals. There are breaks in the 'action' which create a tranquil dementia just as void. For all the straightforward simplicity of its structure, "Dark Totality" does concoct a complex pattern of starkweather emotions and grey acceptance to the nothingness that awaits.

I will sum this up by saying this is one of the more intriguing demos I've heard from the pile lately, and any fan of bleak, lo-fi ambient/black crossover would be wise to spin it while he or she firmly fastens the noose.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

www.myspace.com/livimorket