Reverie

Bliss

Written by: PP on 30/12/2015 16:54:57

Words like 'kvlt' and 'tr00' are usually associated with the Norwegian brethren of black metal bands, yet Reverie make a convincing case for belonging on their debut album "Bliss". Evil, uncompromising black metal where melody is a foreign concept, the band's relentless punishment is not dealing in the usual high pitch tremolo sequences, and instead finds itself shredding at the lower end of the distortion spectrum. Much like panzer division Marduk, Reverie's expression is vile and filthy, focusing on the barren face of ugliness sonically rather than on atmospherics and other beauty-oriented techniques we often see in modern black metal bands like Deafhaven or their Danish counterpart in Møl. Its sole purpose is to destroy and wreak havoc, not to construct ear-pleasing passages or majestic soundscapes.

"Blood In The Sea" is a good example. It's loaded with aggressive riffs that rip and tear through the instrumental landscape while the vocalist resorts to monstrous shrieks that suggest church burnings aren't just an afterthought rather than a part of the band's kvlt/tr00 world viev, at least when it comes to black metal. Even so, Reverie like to throw curveballs at its listener. On the latter track, it comes in the form of subtle melody that fully surprises the listener after the anti-melody pounding they've sent our way so far. On "Bliss", it means an acoustic interlude that could appear on a folk metal album given its softly plucked acoustic guitars and melancholic flutes. Still, these are minor moments of variety on what is otherwise very much an onslaught of pitch black, old scohol black metal Norwegian style.

To give you a better picture, if you ventured towards the container box stage at Copenhell around midnight, you'd find bands like Reverie playing. Underground, murderous black metal that'd burn alive in sunlight, with DIY production that leaves the shrieks echoing and the drums delivering rapid-fire blastbeat punishment in constant, skull-breaking fashion. "Bliss" is therefore not for the faint-hearted, nor for the fashionistas within the black metal scene. Only kvlt-patched members welcome. But while the attitude and the image/sound are in the right place, they still have some ways to go before they reach the higher ends of our rating scale, where you'll find brutalized black metal like Marduk, Darkthrone and others like them.

Download: Dust and Dirt, Blood In The Sea, First Reverie
For the fans of: Marduk, 1349, Absu
Listen: Facebook

Release date 17.07.2015
Invictus

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