ENTHRONING SILENCE (A Dream Of Nightskies) LP

Frankly speaking, even though being released on PAINIAC RECORDS I didn't expect too much of this, especially after detecting the phrase "Enthroning Silence Performs True Essence of Sophisticated Elitarian Art Exclusively" on the back cover, which made me fear just another bunch of oh-so-majestic Black Metal nerds, rehashing, what acts like EMPEROR and/or ARCTURUS had perfected long ago. Obviously I was terribly wrong, as Italian ENTHRONING SILENCE play some very dark and sombre depressive Black Metal, in the vein of BURZUM's "Filosofem" and (especially) ABYSSIC HATE's "Suicidal Emotions " albums. And despite not catching up with Vikernes masterpiece (which is an impossible task anyway!) it's at least on par (if not at times even better...) with the latter, which is a milestone of distorted suicidal music in its own right.

"A Dream Of Nightskies" consists of four long songs, resulting in a playingtime off approx. 45 minutes, which are filled to the max with musically atmospherical brilliance. All the songs are executed in a quite primitive, monotonous, yet melodic way, to achieve a trance-like, mesmerizing effect on the listener. Every (highly distorted) riff reeks of despair, longing and desolation, which is also omnipresent in the lyrical side of things. Actually some of the tragic contained therein, reminded me of earlier WHILE HEAVEN WEPT's lyrical approach. Another plus are the harsh vocals, sounding very distant in the mix, thus adding some more mystery to the whole picture. The LP, which is also graced by a simple, yet magnificent artwork, comes with a two-sided A4 lyric sheet, and is a shining star among so many utterly boring and useless releases nowadays.

(Opolus XXXIX AS)