The Baltic countries are enormously underestimated when it comes to (Black) Metal, but there is a vivid scene out there with lots of excellent bands and projects. There are undeniable and pretty important parallels with the East-European (more specific: the Russian and Polish) and the Scandinavian (more specific: Finnish) scene, but there is something that characterises the sound from many records done in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. That is why I am (almost) always unhappily happy when I have the opportunity to listen to new stuff from out there.
In this specific case I am even more attentive, for I had not heard of Tallinn-based Thou Shell Of Death before. And that is a pity and a shame, for there seems to be a split with Germany’s Wedard too, and I do not have this material in my collection. Time for self-punishment, followed by grief and self-pity…
Anyway, the band was formed in 2010 and they did share the stage with bands like Negura Bunget (he guys, when will your new album come out finally? I cannot wait any longer [more grief and self-pity]) and Skepticism, and they were able to perform live outside the Baltic States too (like Czech Republic, France, Finland and Austria). In 2013 they were signed to the great German label Talheim Records and in mutual collaboration, the debut full length Sepulchral Silence will be released in an edition of 1,000 copies.
Sepulchral Silence consists of five tracks that last in between eight and twelve minutes. The album opens with The Night-wind, which brings a very slow and obscure, oppressive form of Black-oriented Metal, to be filed, if you want to, as Atmospheric or Ambient Black. It is pretty heavy in sound, and holds a heading role for keyboards in different aspects: atmospherically at the background, or symphonic, then again slightly cosmic or prominently hypnotic. And you know, it is done the right way. When it comes to the ‘evident’ instruments (lead and rhythm guitars, drums and bass), the performance is top-notch: pounding, almost droning, and flirting with the edge of Funeral Doom. The vocals are of a very obscure and abyssal kind, somewhere balancing in between the ‘traditional’ death grunt and blackish scream, with a mystic echoing sound. In this case, i.e. this kind of occult and cosmic Black / Doom Metal, it must be the mostly fitting option. Track two, Her Vivien Eyes, goes on in the very same vein, even though both songs (and this goes as well for all others) aren’t copies from each other. With ‘the same vein’ I am referring to an own, characterising implementation. And that’s the way it goes for each single composition on Sepulchral Silence. The album is a trans-dimensional journey, conquering cosmic spheres of ritual and spiritual divinity, translated as Aural Art from the most bleak and grim kind. On top of it, it comes with a massive, slightly lo-fi production, which makes the experience even more intense and breath-taking.
Think about a mixture of, let’s say, Vinterriket, Lustre, Spectral Lore, Finnugor, early Blut Aus Nord / The Eye, Negura Bunget, The Ruins Of Beverast, The Earth King, as well as the projects by Dis Pater (especially Tempestuous Fall and The Crevices Below come to mind)…