[Reviewed by stark]
I feel like I’ve been punched in the face after the primal outburst of detuned strings and walls of noise in the first seconds of “Lucid Nightmares”. It left me with a hope that it’s just this famous hitch-cockian earthquake since the tension is supposed to grow from now on, but it could give at least a few moments of relief. But no, this track is intense from beginning until the very end. It’s not even that it is particularily unpleasant for one’s ears, its simply creepy and highly disturbing.
I can’t say much about the project itself. I know the guy is from Spain and as Sudaria he released three albums, all in 2017. I don’t know what living environment is and after hearing this music I would never say that he comes from beautiful, sunny Galicia. Maybe he never leaves his cellar? He definitely knows how to paint a sinister atmosphere, I give him that.
The second track is quieter, “Mirrors Of Ignorance”. Is there a spark of light and hope there or is it just my imagination? Or ignorance? “Pale Old Gods” sounds as if Troum did a soundtrack for a horror movie. It’s pretty beautiful, shimmering like the aurora borealis with an unspeakable fear lurking around you. This same fear is waiting at the threshold in “Age Of Vice”: combining dark drones, the sounds of dying instruments with grunts and growls of a black metal provenance.
“Shapeless Flame” murders you with guitar feedbacks and noise walls, while “Abhorrent Breeding” with it’s (synth) pipe organ torments and destroys his own voice again. This flame has a shape of claws that will rip into your heart and tear it apart.
I think “Abortion” can be described as doom/black metal. Ugly, distorted and not giving a fuck about current trends and sounds in such a way that compared to Sudaria early Gorgoroth sounds like a well-produced band. With these delicate notes entwined into guitar riffs it recalls Burzum’s “Dunkelheit”. For me a highlight of the album.
The final track is not even mentioned on the cover. It begins after six minutes of silence and is a nice tune built on ambient guitar and reverbed drones. Quite the calm finish of this eerie journey which is worth taking even if it causes mental exhaustion.
Sudaria – Lucid Nightmares
Frozen Light, FZL 057
CD/Digital 2017
Santa Sangre 