WALLACHIA
'Shunya'
(Debemur Morti Productions)
Difficult to be categorized, pleasure to hear it. This is the third album from the Norwegian band Wallachia. 'Shunya' varies from symphonic black to death, full of melody and melancholy. The first song of the album "Dual Nothingness" is an excellent blend of old school Norwegian black metal, with blasting drums and melodic guitars, mixed with symphonic elements and a touch of spacey and electronic sounds. Abandonment, lament and emptiness are the lyrical themes of this song, which calls the listener to follow to a journey to a world where nothing belongs to no one: “…spiritually homeless…” . "Gloria in Excelsis Ego" follows the same path as the first song, but it has more melodic guitar parts and more progressive sound. The line “…the bitterness is yours all alone…” - I think that summarizes the whole lyrical concept of the song, which refers to the malevolence and arrogance of people. "Ksatriya" has an epic, almost doomy, introduction, while the song perhaps surprises the listener, as viola, cello and violin are the main instruments, enhancing the melancholic and depressive atmosphere of the song. "Enlightened by Deception" is much more death, with blasting drums, while the guitar-based "Hypotheist" is aggressive but is has a lot of folk features, using cello and violin. Nostalgia from a former, perhaps better world, is the feeling of the much more electronic "Nostalgia Among the Ruins of Common Sense". Aggressive and blasting in the first part, while melodic and melancholic in the second part is "Harbringer of Vacuumanity", while the last track "Emotional Ground Zero" is the most melancholic and depressive song of the album, where the violin and the keyboards are the absolute protagonists.
Overall, 'Shunya' reveals the improvement of the band since their last album. Excellent passages, varying between fast and slow, aggressiveness and emotion, anger and depression, stemming from the changes between the growling and the clean vocals, between the melodic and blasting guitars, the use of keyboards, the careful bass-playing and the trio of violin-cello-viola. Loss, emptiness, frustration and agony are the main lyrical themes of the album ‘Shunya’, which means "empty" in the Sanskrit language and "zero" in the Indian language. Definitely one of the greatest albums of Wallachia and the symphonic black/death metal scene. [9]
(Dark Alice's nightingale)
No comments:
Post a Comment