Saturday, 12 December 2015

Shadowland - Последняя ночь перед бурей (Last Night Before the Storm) (Album Review)


Tracklist:
1. Забытые ручьи (Forgotten Creeks)      
2. Последняя ночь перед бурей (Last Night before the Storm)     
3. Ночью,в поле (At Night, in the Field)      
4. Тайна тумана (The Mystery of Fog)      
5. Сияние (Shining of...)      
6. Навстречу зиме (Towards the Winter) 
7. Неизведанные тропы (Unexplored Trails)

This is the fourth full length from the prolific independent Russian one man atmospheric black metal/ambient project Shadowland. This is the third full length to come from the project in 2015, and is again helmed by GorDan. I previously reviewed the projects third album Through the Curtain of Falling Leaves which you can check out here.
This album like its predecessor is very synth focused, with much of the sonic driving force being provided by the very sharp and light playing of GorDan. This album however also has some very melodic, and at times very powerful drum work that accompanies the synth very well for much of the first half of the album, it does however decrease in the albums latter half. Vocals are not very prevalent on this record, although when they are used, they are harsh, raw screams that clearly have some powerful emotion behind them, or a soft almost spoken work like chant that also conveys great sadness.

The use of ambience and samples is also well done, especially with the use of bird calls (mostly ravens from what I could tell), these provide a certain natural gloom that gradually builds throughout the album, and is helped by the fact that instead of distinct riffs the guitar work on this album is more like howling wind in the background.

I personally think that this is the best release from the Shadowland this year, and is well worth a listen for fans of depressive atmospheric black metal and ambient black metal alike.
Checkout the bandcamp page for the project here  
            

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