Album Type: Full Length
Date
Released: 20/10/2017
Label: Gilead Media (LP)
If Yellow Eyes’ output continues to
shine like “Immersion Trench Reverie”, it’s only a matter of time until they’re
shoulder-to-shoulder with the fellow legends of black metal.
"Immersion
Trench Reverie" CD//DD//LP track listing
1.
Old Alpine Pang
2.
Blue as Blue
3.
Shrillness in the Heated Grass
4.
Velvet on the Horns
5.
Immersion Trench Reverie
6.
Jubilat
The Review:
Black
metal has become the land of musical modifiers: blackgaze, blackened death,
black doom, ambient black metal. The
expansiveness of black metal is, by and large, a great thing – is there
anything more boring than some TRVE CVLT hipster claiming they have the first
pressing of “Dawn of the Black Hearts”? But sometimes, you need to strip away the
permutations and bask in lo-fi menace. Yellow Eyes
are all too happy to oblige with their third album, “Immersion Trench Reverie”.
Brothers and constant members Will and Sam Skarstad hang loosely to the
foundational pillars of second wave black metal: stripped down production,
frenzied guitars, classical and/or monastic influences, and a preoccupation
with sylvan landscapes.
Opener
“Old Alpine Pang” establishes the
key elements of the record quickly. A
natural field recording (captured by Will and Sam during a trip to Siberia ) meshes with bells and footsteps on concrete,
before an eruption of reverb laden guitars and double bass drumming. It’s akin to stumbling into a profaned old
world convent. The guitars are layered
without sounding overproduced, creating dramatic tension between the frantic
tremolo harmonies and the ringing chords that punctuate the song’s movements. Will Skarstad’s shrieking vocal attack is dry
as summer pine needles, and wouldn’t sound out of place echoing through a
darkened forest. “Blue as Blue,” opens with a distinctly Russian folk sample,
segueing into massive guitar riffs that evoke the Romantic bombast of
Tchaikovsky or Rachmaninoff.
“Shrillness in the Heated Grass” has one
of the most subtly menacing opening riffs of the year, like a broken music box
from hell, before launching into ethereal, shifting chords. Pushing through constant suspensions and
permutations, Yellow
Eyes create a virtual orchestra using only a handful of guitar
tracks – you get the distinct impression that these passages would be just as
grand and moving in a live four-piece setting.
As the final notes ring out, more of the brothers Skarstads’ Siberian field
recordings provide a human, sacred counterpoint to the low end attack of “Velvet on the Horns”. The track is the most distinctly
“progressive” of the sextet, highlighted by tempo and time signature
changes. The guitar harmonies are at
their most intricate, while Rekevics’ drumming is inhuman – by the end, I felt
exhausted on his behalf.
The
title track has some of the most interesting, restrained moments of guitar work
on the whole record, sometimes evocative of post-punk, sometimes basking in
nauseating dissonance that will make your head ache with masochistic
satisfaction. Once again, the drumming
is both frantic and inspired – maybe the best on the record. Closer “Jubilat”,
stretching to ten minutes, is a worthy epic that alludes to Mozart’s Requiem
and the ever-present folk elements in equal measure. In the final movement, Yellow Eyes display supreme
confidence, locking into a repeated pattern that will be branded onto your
brain well after the final, chiming bells fade out.
Band
info: bandcamp
