ninehertz

Who's up for some wintry grimmness? How about an existential split based on the author Martin Heidegger's titular novel? The concept here is understanding humanity and asking those fundamental questions.

The delightfully evil Barshasketh are here to crush hope and trample your spirit as the weather turns cold. Black metal, but with a thundering energy that belies their grimacing, bleak outlook is on display on their side of this split LP. The tremelo picking is strong with this one, lots of shimmering, wasp-like intensity here but the chaos seems focused and sounds for all the world as if they are stoking a fire, stuffed and fuelled by torn tatters of bible passages. Being sounds like an invocation to something sinister.

When it slows to strange, wailing tones at the end, it's as if an army has marched over your path and is now edging into the distance. Truly brilliant. It's a shame there's not more here from them,.

Flip the record and the more thrash-informed Outre take over. Blastbeats and a terrifying production job make their two slabs here seem more intrusive, assertive even. It's suicidal-sounding in terms of lyrics, the theme of existential angst seeming to come through more on this side of the LP. Do I even exist? the vocals growl at one point? My eardrums say yes, my playful philosophical side says, how do we know?

This is a fascinating little record, but why there wasn't more material to spare for this I'll never know. It seems a waste of an LP to only shove about ten minutes on each side.

Oh wait, maybe that's the point? Life is essentially emptiness, we all expect too much? I've become a victim of my own reviewing pride, what a fool I've been...

Grab this now at Third Eye Temple Records and try to fill the silence with something other than crying yeah?