All The Cold are a Russian project with former and current members of e.g. Kirai and Dead. Nowadays they do not play Black Metal anymore, but that was quite different in the past. This compilation is the best example of that glorious past.
One Year Of Cold consists of nine songs that were recorded in 2007 and 2008 by remaining member Nordsjel (nowadays he’s known as Violet Sun, by the way) and Winter, who left a couple of years ago. All of the cold stuff was recorded and mixed at Norman Records and was previously unreleased, or released on hard-to-find things like the 2008-demo or one of the splits that were released in 2008 and 2009. The compilation will be released in 1.000 copies in total, amongst which 50 in a special plastic box with a poster, and 950 as regular jewel-case.
The duo performs an atmospheric and little melancholic kind of Black Metal, rather slow and ambient in approach, which is mainly instrumental in performance. There are just a limited couple of tracks which do include vocals, but the better part isn’t ‘but’ instrumental. I do not care (despite my passionate affection for diverse kinds of screaming and grunting), because the tracks are extremely strong in their specific genre. This kind of atmospheric and Ambient-laden Black Metal is pretty ‘popular’ lately (and then I am referring to the last five to seven years), but it does exist for decades; yet the peak, and this certainly goes for qualitative results, has now come to perfection. And with this project it isn’t but a certificate that it might work, with or without vocals. These (limited) vocals, by the way, are of a very guttural, distant and abyssal kind, like some Balrog screaming out loud his or her orgasm. But indeed, the instrumental passages are superb. It’s a trip, being at the same time beautiful and nasty, exhaling a spirit of mysticism and winter-landscapes. Besides, it does combine blackened passages with spherical excerpts (sometimes long-stretched minimal soundscapes, like the main part of New Day Without Me, as well as slightly epic acoustic passages or sounds of nature) that have nothing to do with (Black) Metal directly, but with at least a comparable grim, haunting and oppressive approach. And despite the very lengthy average duration, those aural journeys do not bore one single moment, at least if you can appreciate everything in between, well, let’s say Velvet Cacoon, Lustre, Vinterriket, Spectral Lore, Dim Pater’s projects, Thou Shell Of Death and, as a matter of fact, many (most) projects from Kunsthauch’s roster. I’d recommend to search on our site for reviews on, for example, stuff provided by labels like I, Voidhanger (Spectral Lore or the Converge, Rivers Of Hell-split), Kunsthauch / Dunkelkunst (several updates lately, since we did receive quite an impressive package), or Talheim (Thou Shell Of Death). You’re welcome…
[note: why a review on an ‘old’ release? Actually, Kunsthauch, Dunkelkunst and 99 Screams Series, all acting under the same banner, did send us, and therefore I am truly thankful, quite some releases, both new and old; since all of them, or at least the majority, are worth being known / listened, I have no reason to not promote this excellent stuff!]