Yith - Immemorial (Digipak)

digipack, 300 made

"the music is the audio equivalent of a dark and ancient tapestry, one hanging from the vast wall of a cold and crumbling edifice, lit only by candlelight. Woven with indigo strands of lugubrious melody over stately rhythms, and more vibrant bursts of fiery color on a field of blasting percussion, and embroidered with vocals that range from tortured growls to livid shrieks, the music draws organically from the schools of doom and black metal.

The corrosive distortion of the stringed tones gives the music a pervasively unsettling effect, but the evocative power of the melodies is even more unsettling and oppressive. Even the brief, classically inclined acoustic-guitar accents have a doleful resonance. The acoustic melodies also contribute to the feeling I’ve had before in listening to Yith, that medieval music has been an influence.

I should warn you that the immersive power of the album is considerable… and that what it draws you into (or rather, submerges you beneath) is a particularly devastating and haunting gloom." no clean singing