Depressive Black Metal/Shoegaze:
Hypomanie - Hypomanie
Label : Valse Sinistre
Release : September 2009
This Shoegaze Black Metal stuff is really making a ruckus. A big ruckus. Well.. that's probably an exaggeration. But still. If you're not familiar with it, mix together the dreaminess and instrumentals of Shoegaze and Post rock with the vocals of DSBM. Speaking of vocals, they're one of the biggest reasons that this release stands out among the others of its kind. Despite "happiness" being one of the supposed lyrical influences, all I hear is indiscernible screaming. It's quite bizarre. The song titles aren't of the usual kind. Songs like "Sunday" and "Sleep Tight" aren't what I'm used to seeing. They sound like tracks for a Christian lullaby album. Taking that into consideration, along with the fact that on his Myspace he calls his material "amplified pop music" and that he says he loves everyone, REALLY makes you wonder what the hell he's trying to get across. Though I'd take this over Xasthur's histrionics (pretty much said he has no Myspace because the truth is, no one is his friend and.. blah blah).
Well, as always, I digress. You can get a wide variety of feelings from this record. Songs like Zondagmorgen (Sunday), are rather quiet and dreamy (well.. not taking the vocals into consideration of course), while songs like Innocentie are very intense and evocative; complete with a music box melody and what sounds to be a baby crying. Which ironically is one of the heaviest songs on the whole EP. Definitely recommended fellow MBers!