Style: atmospheric black metal
Primary Emotions/Themes: Nature
Thoughts: So these guys came out of no where for me. I thought the cover looked cool so I gave it a listen. What I heard was more than what I could have ever expected.
Oerheks plays atmospheric black metal, the kind with a bit of an obscured atmosphere. This release only has two songs and is just barely under thirty minutes in length. It treads the line between atmosphere and ambient on a razors edge, and by the time the album is over I was completely enamored with the band.
The first three minutes of the album is a good microcosm of the entire release. It starts out with what I presume is a full guitar chord being strum. It's difficult to make out the details from the production. This is where the ambient portion comes in; the atmosphere is so strong and so dense in this release primarily due to the production. It hides the details of the release behind a wall of obscurity that forces me to listen more intently to the music to carve out the smallest details in the riffs, drums and vocals that I so desire to understand.
The actual riffs and song structures on the release are not entirely unique, but they are competent enough and executed to near perfection that they stand up and shout "witness me!" Combine this with the obscure production and you have a release that has my full undivided attention.
Is it revolutionary? No, not really - but it doesn't need to be. It needed to be good, and it checks off every box for my personal taste when it comes to atmospheric black metal. The production in particular is fantastic. Obscure without harshness, raw without forcing the listener to endure pain, the balance is perfect.
Much like a certain artist that was beloved generations ago, happy little accidents happen. I just so happened to find the cover intriguing and it started a happy little accident of my own discovery of this fascinating band. Bands like this make wading through the mire and muck of all the mediocre releases ultimately worth it.
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