“Silence is the sacred shroud,
Solitude a weary friend.”
So say the souls born of the clouds,
Where all stories start and end;
Riven from the light,
Stricken blind,
Wrought into eternal night
How the welkin rang out with their anguished cries;
“What given right have you to judge me thusly?
Authority of mob and mass.
Save your stones, you couldn’t sink or crush me,
Obligation drags me down at last”
All in rags and torn upon the stones,
Cursed to roam the earth alone.
Fallen lambs to feed the meek,
Wretched hunger never sleeps.
Bound in mortal flesh,
Leaden chains,
Bleeding at the gates.
Innocents lured down from the peaks,
A grieving sky can only weep.
“Forgive me while I find the words,
I speak not in my mother tongue.
Hear me, hear my words,
What duty calls me from my work,
To toil here among the throng?
Tell me, what have I done.”
Another cloud dweller falls,
The mother mountain mourns.
Within the downcast roils an incandescent wrath;
“Deep into the darkest hive you drug me,
To the twisting reeking knot of life, you came whence.
I long at night to rise above the cloud sea,
I will dream not in your words but silence”
Across a blackened land,
Enjoining shackled hands.
“We souls born on the mountain,
Cursed by another’s sin.
Silence our given language,
Solitude our dearest kin.”
To bear the weight of ages,
Rise above the clinging mist.
Climb from this gaping valley,
Into light and truth and bliss.
“Our names were never yours to give,
Your words are only marks of ash.
Curses on a crumbling page,
Destined for a grave of dust.
This city is a feast for worms,
Set to burn on blackened pyre.
To the mountain we return,
Leaving the tyrants to their fated end in fire”
Bloody hell the vocals here are absolutely majestic; supremely dynamic with loads of variance in style while maintaining a visceral brutality. The atmospheric elements are gracefully and artfully intertwined but make no mistake, this is ruthless black metal first and foremost. Band synergy is also stunning and can be felt through my speakers; everything is just so masterfully packaged together. Faith
Merci Déhà for the download code. Lots of bands use these ingredients – pretty female vocals over doomy guitars always sounds good, but usually that's where the ideas run out. That isn't the case here. Each song is packed with ideas and evolutions, genres and references it's boring to list but not at all to listen to. A pleasure to have been introduced to this. Luke
US Black Metal. A one man, Keeper of the Glyph (Artemis Orland), band. Some extremely catchy moments & unforgetable melodies here. I would like to call it polished raw BM because the vocals are quite raw & very haunting but the overall feel is more rounded than usual raw BM... :) Great album! Thanks Glyph! Recommended!!! bmurator
Tokyo band contrast black metal's brutal complexity with shoegaze's abyssal grandeur, resulting in an LP that feels crushing, yet infinite. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 24, 2022
Icelandic Blackened Funeral Doom. This is extremely innovative & you are unlikely to hear anything like it anywhere else! There is a lot of experimentation going on making it is incredibly interesting listen! I love this & find it very unique! Recommended! bmurator