lista zespołów Atmospheric Black Echtra Paragate

There are many things that I love about writing and reviewing music and one of them is that I am opened up to new world when I’m presented with bands like Echtra. I have no idea what to expect, which is a nice change because I have no opinion of previous albums to compare it to, I have no biases or previous notions. I can just let myself absorb the music in its raw form and that is what I did with “Paragate”. The simplicity of the music is what I love, the subtle changes, the delicateness I guess you could say. Even when it gets into a darker realm it remains mild and gentle. The changes are scattered all over and are so intricate that you really have to not only open up your ears but your mind as well to take it all in. The tracks, “Paragate I”, and “Paragate II” both clock in around twenty-three minutes but it flows so seamlessly that you don’t even notice.

Starting out with a gentle hum, it relaxes you as the warm sounds of acoustic guitar come into play. After about two minutes into it plodding along you start to hear the drone of electric guitars and occasional drums off in the background but doesn’t overpower the main riff that’s playing. The subtle changes I start to notice is the darker tone it starts to take on around the six minute mark. The acoustic and electric guitars both take on more of a somber mood that seems to get more ominous with every note. The somber chants and whispers that you hear off in the distance lend even more eeriness and atmosphere as the acoustic guitar starts to fade away and you’re left with these ambient sounds that have you feeling like you’re floating aimlessly through space.

The second track, continues where “Paragate I” has left off and then goes on into a nice acoustic melody that flows with a haunting beauty. What completely through me off guard is the new direction it went into at the nine minute mark, I was expecting to continue on in the same manner but it headed into a direction that would be more along the lines of black metal. Drums and guitar come smashing in as well as howling vocals that bring it to a whole new level and I love the change that it brought without distorting the atmosphere. It slowly tapers off into near silence before more acoustic guitar comes in with a very melancholy tone and fades off once more off into the distance.

The complexity of this album is remarkable; to have each instrument weave in and out and play each other like they do here is not an easy task by any stretch of the imagination. This album is full of ambiance and emotion that completely draws you in. If you’re into doom metal but want something more avant-garde then you will want to have “Paragate” in your collection.

18/20

I can certainly say I was interested in listening to this album. I'm the type of guy that really likes avant-garde/drone/ambient music, and I wanted to hear something that wasn't by a well-known band of this sort like Om, Sunn O))) or Earth. I can certainly say that Echtra's Paragate did not dissapoint me.

While this album is cut into two tracks, Paragate I and Paragate II, they blend into each other in a way that I think it'd be more fitting to review this whole album as one long song. The change in the track isn't made clear in any way, and if you sit down and listen to the whole album you'd be hard-pressed to pinpoint where the track changes.

Echtra's Paragate is a transcendental, simplistic journey through shifting emotions and strange feelings. There are plenty of changes in mood and tone utilized by the slightest of changes in the musical flow. The song opens with a low buzzing, droning sound, although unlike bands like Sunn O))) and Darkspace the droning sound is relaxed rather than crushing. A warm acoustic guitar comes into the center stage and plods along with a gentle riff that sounds like something you'd hear off of Earth's album HEX. In other words, it sounds like something out of the old west without sounding cornball-y. During the time that the acoustic guitar plays, the soft droning of guitars continues on in the background, giving a droning/DS black metal vibe to the sound. It's really mellow and calming, great stuff to sit and relax to. During the time this goes on, I notice a lot of very subtle changes in the notes the guitar hits, how many notes are in a measure, etc. I also hear the electric guitar going into a slow, winding melody of its own. At about 9:10 you can hear an emotional change in just the smallest little subtle change; the music becomes ominous, creepy, and building. Very doomy. There are spaces where all you hear is a low droning with occassional ambient noises here and there.

These changes are scattered all over the place, sometimes the acoustic guitar fades out to leave an airy keyboard riff, sometimes there are whispered or chanted vocals remeniscent of Attila Csihar while he was in Sunn O))). Surprisingly too are the drums. Yes that's right, for all of you drummers out there that hate bands like Sunn O))) because they lack percussion, there is some drumming going on here. Anything from the lazy beat of the cymbal or bass-kick, to drumrolls and fills. Of course, they're used quite sparsely throughout the album, but they're there, and they don't take away from whatever attitude or atmosphere is going on at the time.

Like I said already, Paragate goes in a lot of different directions of tone and mood, but the shifts all seem pretty much flawless, save for the 'heavy' section that comes in about 9:30 into track 2. I'll get to that later. The atmosphere is very very stable, very haunting, and very powerful. It defenitely has something to compare to Sunn O))) as far as drone goes, although Echtra has a completely different stance than they do. They're more about haunting, low-key sounds and music, rather than booming bass that makes your walls shake. They pull it off magnificently, and they utilize subtlety greatly. Weaving in and out of different sections seamlessly is not an easy task (although I guess it helps having the music so slow).

Alright, let's talk about the heavy part. After a nice acoustic melody, distorted guitars come in loud. Drums start going wild (wild compared to the rest of the stuff off the album) and there're howled vocals. This is such a great climax. It took me totally off guard, but I loved it. Having listened to a half hour already of slow melodies and droning guitars/keyboards, I was expecting the album to continue this way. But what a surprise this was. And the best part is, it still doesn't break atmosphere. It's basically like listening to DS black metal with acoustic going at the same time, and it sounds just gorgeous. And then it tapers off into near silence, and the acoustic guitars come in again, with another melancholy riff, and the rest of the album runs through a slow progression of ambient sounds, acoustic, and other vocals. The heavy guitars make their return, and the album progresses its way smoothly through the last few minutes.

There's a lot more variety than one would expect from a 46-minute drone album. It's certainly very adventurous; a lot of different ideas are explored constantly. Like I said before, it's also remarkably haunting and sotr of... ghostly. The way it weaves through different things is just spectacular. Although I generally like the band Sunn O))) more (albums like Monoliths and Dimensions or Black One are still the undisputed champions), this album actually does actually top a few Sunn albums for me, like White 1 or Grimmrobe Demos. I highly recommend this to fans of drone and avant-garde ambient, and come to think of it, if you're ever thinking of starting getting into this sort of music, I say start here.