Style: Epic atmospheric black metal
Primary Emotions/Themes: Beauty through darkness, obscurity that rewards observation
Thoughts: I have no idea how I made it this far into this blog without including one of my favorite black metal projects: Ruins of Beverast. To call this pure black metal would be misleading however. This is so much more than that.
Ruins of Beverast is one part black metal, one part doom, one part dark ambient, all wrapped up in the darkness and atmosphere that can only be found in the darkest reaches of hell. I can't stress enough how foreboding the atmosphere is on each one of the albums. So much so that I have to be careful when I decide to listen to the music. I have to listen at the right time or it's going to put me into a very bad place mentally.
The project also seems to be broken up into several chapters. The first two albums have a raw production and with that a more obscure sound. The next two albums clean up the production to create some of the finest black/doom metal ever to be recorded. The final two albums move away from the dark atmospheres into a more ritualistic sound.
Rain Upon the Impure is the second album from the band, and so features some of the rawest recording that the project has ever done. It's difficulty to quantify how deep the rabbit hole goes with this album. There are so many things going on that even after repeated listens I'm still finding new things.
On top of that the album is l o n g. Seven tracks and just shy of eighty minutes long with two of the songs being interlude tracks. This leaves us with five tracks that are all well over ten minutes long. The tracks themselves may as well be a small self contained album. They twist and weave in unpredictable ways and force me into an uncomfortable journey as it leads me through its mountains and valleys.
One moment a song will be going at a slow doomish pace with atmospheric keyboards playing a melody. The atmosphere is so thick at these points that it's almost palatable. Just as the musics hypnotic tendrils start to really sink in, a blast beat will take over out of no where and force me into another direction completely.
Even though the transitions can be jarring, the music itself shifts quickly from one hypnotic moment to another. These riffs have a way of sweeping me up and carrying me wherever the hell they want. To be honest it's almost too much. I have to take this album in chunks, one record at a time. Even though it's all amazing music, the production requires me to listen intently to get as much out of it as I would like. This means that I'm straining and listening at high volumes for extended periods of time.
That one qualm aside, Rain Upon the Impure has an allure to it that is truly rare in music. It's difficult to listen to - yes, but it keeps begging me to come back by it's quality. This is an incredibly challenging yet entirely rewarding album. I once saw a quote about it that I believe fits this and the band perfectly: "Ruins of Beverast is not over rated, or under rated. They simply exist and those who are destined to find it are the chosen few."
Written February 18th 2024
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