lista zespołów Black Metal Shroud Of Despondency Pine

After a long period of inactivity, Shroud of Despondency returned last year with not one, but two albums worth of new material, with Dark Meditations in Monastic Seclusion and Objective:Isolation, displaying 2 vastly different styles of black metal on each of the albums, and both leaving a lasting impression, making the receiving of the new effort of the band, Pine, an extremely pleasant surprise.

As Objective:Isolation was more of a compilation of the band's earlier works and style of black metal, one would then expect Pine to be some sort of a continuation of where Dark Meditations in Monastic Seclusion left off. Wanderlust (Winged Seed in the Breeze) immediately presents a dark atmosphere in the music, with the ominous roll of the thunder in the background as synths slowly fades in, eventually giving way to a melancholic clean guitar melody. Unlike the somewhat hopeful sound that the band's previous release contained, Pine fails to give listeners any such hope, with the brooding mood in the music blocking out all sense of optimism, leaving listeners with only a sense of impending doom. And the band does that painfully slow as well, as the intro drags on and on, taking their time to build the climax, though this is definitely not a complaint, seeing how the band has managed to do so skilfully.

Overshadow brings listeners back to familiar ground, with that muffled guitar tone and the heavy atmosphere that shrouds the music. Vocalist Ron on Pine replaces ex-member, Michael, and he manages to do his job well too and is almost indistinguishable from Michael's works on Dark Meditations in Monastic Seclusion, though his shrieks are definitely more powerful and desolate, helping in bringing out that desperation that is so crucial in the music of Shroud of Despondency. He also alternates between these black metal shrieks and throaty death growls, making the songs on the album sound more dynamic. The layering of the growls and the shrieks is also a nice touch, giving a fuller sound. However, there is a marked reduction in the usage of clean vocals on the album which gave Dark Meditations... it's charm, though this is more than made up for through the excellent execution of the music on Pine. The lead guitars of mastermind Rory and Jon are at times melodic, providing some sense of hope among all the despair, though for the most part they provide face-ripping solos like those on New Trees.

Compared to Dark Meditations in Monastic Seclusion, Pine presents a more aggressive and darker side of the band to listeners and fans of the band, and this is evident through the increased usage of death metal sections on most songs. There are also heavier moments on the album, such as the doom-paced The Great Sadness Descends that manages to live up to its title. The usage of that same nihilistic-sounding spoken word that was present on Dark Meditations... on the the interludes that all serve to reinforce that somewhat suicidal mood on the album, with an ironically soothing ambient backdrop in particular on Wanderlust (Moist Soil). Half Open Gates even brings in some folk metal feel, further expanding the sound that Shroud of Despondency has created. The awkward instrumentation on songs like Light Words, Dark Graves also has the effects of causing uneasiness in the listener, and could very well have been the entire intention of the band.

As the band themselves has mentioned, Pine is the follow up to Dark Meditations... and is intended to be a darker effort than its predecessor, and the band has certainly managed to do so without losing the vision that they had started off with, and marks the growth and maturation of the band as songwriters and musicians.