Lista de los grupos Black Metal Trancelike Void Where the Trees Can Make It Rain

Depressive black metal never was the most diverse genre, where minimalism is a genre convention one would typically expect a distinct lack of fancy displays of guitar proficiency. After all this is a genre where creating an authentic depressive atmosphere is the primary concern of the musicians and therefore extravagant displays of technicality would be counterproductive to the genres primary aesthetic. However, all things considered I do expect any depressive black metal band to have even a faint glimmer of diversity. In a genre where minimalism and repetitious song structures are encouraged then aspects such as song writing become very important. If a band doesn’t have the skill to work with the minimalistic approach of the genre then there’s not much they have going for them. Compelling song structures and interesting musical ideas are highly pivotal in securing a bands position within the depressive world. Absence of these essential traits renders the music entirely useless, resulting in an incredibly boring and taxing listening experience. I bring this up because on Where the Trees Can Make It Rain, Trancelike Void are straddling the line between good depressive music and bad depressive music. There are some good ideas on here but the overall delivery of way too lethargic and apathetic to allow it to achieve any sort of lasting impact. The ideas themselves haven’t been fleshed out enough. The acoustic delivery could have worked if more was added to the sound, but unfortunately for us Trancelike Void decided to go ahead and record an album solely comprised of a lone guitar and drums.

Now, if the actual music was interesting enough on its own right then I’m quite confident that an acoustic based depressive black metal release could have worked. I like instrumental acoustic music and I like the atmospherics and melodic style of depressive black metal so why wouldn’t I like the two fused together? Now, normally if a depressive black metal band decided to do an instrumental then they would have added more to it, ambient sections, folk influenced passages, you know anything to flesh out the sound more. Not Trancelike Void however, they decided to go straight up and play fairly generic minor key melodies on a lone guitar whilst a drum keeps the beat. It’s not the most exciting concept I’ve ever come across but it’s not the worst either. The riffs themselves are okay; they’re fairly atmosphere and carry with them a suitable degree of melancholy and emotion. They would have been really effective if the band added more interesting segments to the music, added string sections, ambiance, anything to keep it from stagnating. Unfortunately the concept of atmosphere seems to have gone directly over the heads of the musicians as there is nothing except the acoustic guitar and the drum beat. There’s nothing particularly exciting or interesting here. Even though the riffs themselves could very well have worked, the refusal to experiment with the sound is ultimately what constitutes towards its downfall. It all feels far too safe for my liking, there’s no desire to try anything new or exciting. The acoustics only play a handful of melodies, nothing new or fancy here, they could have been ripped directly from the textbook of any other depressive black metal band in existence. The only difference here between Trancelike Void and everyone else is the overall delivery.

Whilst I’m not opposed to instrumental music, in fact I quite welcome it. There’s a certain degree of content that I expect instrumental music to provide. I expect it to contain a good amount of content, I expect it to have ideas that are interesting and well thought out. I don’t expect it to be consisted solely of a few boring minor key melodies we’ve heard a thousand times before played on a “gloomy” acoustic whilst a lone drum keeps the beat. There’s no real content on display here, no real weight to the music. Whilst the core of the music might be otherwise pretty serviceable, the refusal to experiment with the music’s template results in an ultimately very stale and apathetic listening experience. If Trancelike Void aim to go further in the realm of acoustic rock then they need to stop fearing the concept of experimentation and add more interesting elements to the music. At the moment I’m just not buying it, needs work guys.