This one popped up on my list of records that haven't been spun in more than a year so I put it on. I had a vague notion that it was dissonant black/death metal but other than that I had no idea... I should have put this on way sooner.
Almyrkvi, at least on Umbra, play an incredibly brooding and evil form of black metal. The atmosphere and overall feel of the music has a sci-fi horror edge that simply does not let up. Every moment of the album is ominous, brooding, and completely paranoid. Be it a slow atmospheric breakdown with deep clanking sounds behind it (seriously I have no idea what that is). A slow build to an explosion of music and reverb... even the slow strum of a guitar. It all reeks of something from the depths of space coming to devour me.
One of the highlights of the album is the vocals. Sure there are the typical low and high black metal vocals... but the inclusion of clean vocals... this is where the album starts to differentiate itself from many other's in the atmospheric black metal field. Not only are they well executed, they add a level of unease to the music that simply is not possible with distorted vocals.
I don't know how I slept on this one so long. I have to revisit my top albums of 2017 with this revelation. This is certainly one of the better surprises I've had in the past few months... maybe even a year.
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