[Reviewed by: Iaha Crax]
The ConSouling Sounds label has been releasing some collaboration EPs where mostly different styled bands have joined in mutual music performances.
Hemelbestormer is the transformed present embodiment of the black metal act Gorath, the consecutive project of its composer Filip Dupont. He takes here, beginning with the first track “Alpha”, the narrative approach in composition that has gained a lot buzz lately with the creations of acts such as Year Of No Light, Russian Circles and old Godspeed You! Black Emperor; the lovely imposing sludge, post-rock, heavy metallic digression-philia that moves the modern hippy-romantics of the present age.
Vanessa Van Basten is established in Italy as part of the same scene, with a visible inclination towards warm atmospheres and pensive shoegazing. When the two projects work together, such as on the second track, “Portal I”, they accomplish a fathoming fusion between obscure, dim tremolos and vaporous ambient sounds.
Otherwise, the Italian band is more founded of rock-styled, balladesque entrepreneurism, mixing heavy and hard rock in an eclectic voyeurism connected to other avant-garde experimentalists such as Ephel Duath or Fleurety. From this respect, “Odyssey Song” sounds like a mocking, glamorous dance hall competition song, engaging the audience in dancing fortuities.
“Hidden Under Terms Like”, the band’s second personal track, displays again some intriguing metallic arrangements. You have the feeling of listening to cover versions of some depressive black metal made by Virus, the appetizing project continuing Ved Buens Ende, while the use of vocals (reminiscent of Tiamat’s “A Deeper Kind Of Slumber”) and guitars betray even an engagement with post-Nirvana fetishists. The influence of Swans psychedelia is not too far away, infused with an extravagant sense of industrial mannerism.
“Portal II” is a mirror reflection of the previous joint composition. It contains a tremolo that should be removed from any future post-rock sound in order to gain autonomy. The song is nicely worked out through simple, almost disintegrating, metallic structures that create an transparent ambient space around it.
Hemelbestormer closes the EP with “Omega”. The development of the track bears a ceremonial sludge doom utterance like a Blut Aus Nord churning bereft of the industrial shuffling.
Another great release form ConSouling Sounds which should rouse our interest in discovering other such collaborations (Thisquietarmy / Syndrome – The Lonely Mountain, Gnaw Their Tongues / Alkerdeel – Dyodyo Asema, Year Of No Light & Thisquietarmy – Split).
Hemelbestormer / Vanessa Van Basten – Split
ConSouling Sounds, SOUL0032
CD 2014
Santa Sangre 