Microdose: Sunken, Urfaust, Dynfari & Lake Of Corpses

The MicroDose section of the site is a platform for our writers to discuss recent albums they’ve been listening to without having so much to say that it warrants it’s own article. Whether they are scored, include negative reviews or have specific themes is entirely up to each writer. You can view the whole collection of Microdoses here.

Written by Mass of Hard Album Review
(Black Metal Microdose)

Honestly, I didn’t give this album a serious consideration at first as there is an excess of mundane, lackluster black metal bands which release subpar albums every year. But after a few minutes I realized Sunken has something of quality. The more this album drifts towards the end, the stronger and more emotionally potent it becomes, as my two highlights are in fact the closing and the penultimate track in that specific order. Dødslængsel (Longing for Death) is a piece with robust inseverable ties and Delirium borders quality post rock/black gaze. Moreover, Forget is inclined toward traditional black metal and Ensomhed (Loneliness) is a blend of all said elements. All the lyrics are in Danish as well. Overall, despite being an up-and-coming band, they have the flair for making heart-tearing music.

What begins as a grand neoclassical composition juxtaposed with modern drumming, something I particularly took pleasure in, with the track Offerschaal Der Astrologische Mengformen, soon turns into an abyssal, dismal drone/noise piece and thus is rendered disposable. It is true that minimalism is eminent in ambient music and song structure is minimally diverse, but I believe that this fact, indeed, requires a more scrupulous approach to writing. I think “IX” possesses a gifted voice, but he puts it to waste by just humming and vocalizing sounds rather than actual singing. The album offers decent music when they actually play some music; at other times, it is mere drone-ish noise. And the more this album drifts towards its ending, the more drab it becomes and the more futile their efforts to attract or impress the listener seem, a case in point being Het Godverlaten Leprosarium, the final track, with about 4 minutes and a half of scraping noise.

Formed in 2010 and already having released 4 studio albums, the Icelandic post/atmospheric black metallers have returned with what seems to be a decent album within the genre. Their 5th studio album, Myrkurs er þörf (which translates as Darkness is Needed), consists of a handful of strong riffs, angsty vocals, well-fitted bass lines and competent drum work, with a darkish permeating ambience all through the work.

The whole album is chiefly guitar-driven, with riffs and melodies pushing the album forward into a somewhat nightmarish sonic sphere. The album opens with an instrumental track, Dauðans dimmu dagar (The Dark Days of Death), which starts with a rather clean atmosphere and then nosedives into a crunching, hefty riff with a slight touch of melody. The interlude, Svefnlag (Sleeping Layer), which is another instrumental track escalates, the ambience to the top. Before this interlude and in the first half, the title track shines brighter than the rest. It is a fine mix of clean and distorted guitars and one of the finest vocal deliveries on this album. But the real highlight of the album comes in the second half. Peripheral Dreams is what truly excels all other tracks and delivers what I believe to be the band’s optimal performance. All one might need can be found on this gem: soothing and eerie atmospheres, fast-paced (post) black metal guitar-and-drum frenzy, a doomy riff, and diverse vocals; all in a post atmospheric black metal capsule.

In one word, the music that Lake of Corpses offers is a malicious combination of ferocity and production quality of raw black metal with a hefty load of melody in the riffs, with a few mini solos on some tracks. Normally, one might think that raw and melodic would be unreconcilable sides of a coin, never meant to be seen together in black metal, but Stelios Kyprianou, the sole member of the band, has proven to know what he is doing and he has intentionally aimed at both having an unhinged viciousness on the one hand and the more musically-rich side of melodicness on the other. My favorite track though is At the Coast of the Lake of Corpses which is a robust atmospheric black song. He has particularly spent ample time on the lyrics and has penned down some considerable amount of lyrics for this album. Perhaps this has been the reason why the vocals are, unlike the vast majority of BM bands, quite comprehensible and clear. Overall, it is an album to consider if you crave for underground but accomplished black metal bands.