Absence

The hearts of some metal fans beat faster as soon as they think they discover a new, widely ignored band from the “underground”. Yes, there is a certain mysticism when it comes to this word, something that indicates a hidden sensation which the eye of the untrained music consumer does not recognise. But who the hell defines what is underground and what is not?

The answer is simple. In my reviews, I am the one and frankly speaking, I enjoy this kind of dictatorship. So I say: Kilte from Belgium was an underground band, because almost nobody took notice of them (myself included). But more than 15 years after the release of “Absence”, I stumbled over this album while checking a mailorder list. So feel invited to follow me into the underground of Antwerp and / or Flemish Brabant. (We don't care about such small differences here.)

Once there, you quickly realise that Kilte primarily pours the toughest lava over the listener from full buckets. The slow- to mid-tempo pieces focus on an extreme density with guitars whose riffs permanently circle around themselves. The voice supports this kind of concept. It appears like an additional instrument due its passionate, inhuman cries and shouts. This totally mechanized vocals approach gives the songs a cruel and bitter touch. The vocals almost take on the role of a diabolical corrective to the instrumental flow, which seems nearly light-footed, at least in "Haar laatste traan". By the way, a good song whose substance justifies its length of more than eight minutes. From my point of view, it marks the highlight here, because the actually stoic and strong opener suffers a bit from its atmospheric break after seven minutes. It belongs to these breaks that introduce diversity for the sake of itself. The closer also stands in the shadow of “Haar laatste traan”. It’s a pretty mild instrumental with more or less dreamy guitar lines and somehow it does not really match with the two songs before.

“Absence” scores with an adequate, robust production, a stylish artwork and more or less competitive musical content. Freaks with a passion for doomy blackness and an obsession for the underground should now take a wild ride through the worldwide web in order to find a copy of this work. By contrast, I leave the subterranean catacombs. Right now, I'm in the mood for a good Kiss record. "Destroyer", "Lick it Up" or "Hot in the Shade"? Whatever, I don't think it has anything to do with underground anymore.

From the first seconds into Absence, it becomes clear that this Belgian act doesn’t try to be most innovative depressive black metal project, that’s for sure. And it’s unfortunate, because I fail to find anything really grabbing from the five tracks provided on Eisenwald’s 2009 re-release of this EP.

The band mostly wanders in mid-tempos, overall atmosphere being murky and sound-wise fuzzy and very modified - especially the vocals that are a wall of distortion, killing all the possible emotion of the original voice. It’s a shame, and I personally think that the guitar sound could do better, too, as it sounds too muffled with modern effects.

The aforementioned unnaturalness is clearly Absence’s weakest link, but there’s something to nag about the compositions, too: while ”Haar Laatste Traan” succeeds in creating an enjoyable desolate atmosphere with synths in prominent role and ”Eindeloos Verval” is at least partially a pretty good calmful track, the whole 36-minute package is in general rather infertile, and the two bonus tracks are just earlier demo versions of two of the EP’s songs, so those don’t bring much added value. The sound is more cruel on the demo versions and I find myself digging it better than the effect-filled EP material, nonetheless.

For those who don’t mind unoriginality in their depressive black metal, Absence is recommendable; personally I find it a tad too underwhelming even though it has its moments (I do find myself lost in some sort of trance during ”Eindeloos Verval”). Depressive black metal has seen better releases and I prefer grabbing some Abyssic Hate or Hypothermia from my shelves instead of this, in all honesty.

2 / 5
[ http://www.vehementconjuration.com/ ]

It feels like I’ve been bombarded with promos of depressive black metal acts lately, and I’ve had to sit through and analyze quite a few of them just these last couple of days. As I’ve stated dozens and dozens of times before (which is why it often comes as bit of a surprise that I still receive such promos) I don’t particularly enjoy the style. Most such bands are tedious, too bloody repetitive and with too little talent. So I try to stay clear of them. But here we have Kilte’s 2006 debut EP for the first time on CD. There was apparently some kind of problem with the original release with the master getting lost, or something, so from what I understand the tape and vinyl versions aren’t what they were supposed to be. The promo sheet states that this release sees the songs as they were originally meant to be, and it also includes demo versions of two tracks, just to showcase their development in between.

After a short intro of wailing a clean guitar sets in motion a melody before the distortion crushes any and all melodic approach it had. The distortion is heavy in more than one way on Absence, and as the guitar is definitely dwelled in it so are the vocals. For about 80% of the time there’s absolutely nothing unique or special about Kilte; it sounds just like any other band trying to accomplish a sorrow-filled atmosphere by repeating the same riffs over and over again. But the other 20% is actually pretty damn interesting.

The true beauty of our absence has the same monotonous sound you’d expect from the style with repetitive riffing and drumming. The riffing brings small alterations, but most certainly no major ones, to the mix, and after a while it’s a bit tedious to listen to. It’s when they suddenly incorporate a subtle keyboard, breaking the monotony, that they really showcase they’ve got something to offer. The break of sampled rain and a clean guitar would’ve been much more effective had they excluded the vocals in that particular section, seeing as the heavily distorted vocals take away focus from everything else. The following Haar laatste traan has a beautiful and effective keyboard melody, and hence starts off great before the vocals set in. The vocals for this tune deal with much more extensive lyrics (or so it seems, it’s bloody impossible to decipher anything), and the screams aren’t as slow as in The true beauty of our absence. This unfortunately makes the crackling distortion take over even more, and while trying to listen in on the actual music all I seem to hear is distortion.

It’s the instrumental Eindeloos verval that takes home the win. Here I don’t have to deal with overwhelming distortion, I can concentrate on all of the musical aspects and enjoy the melody within. The guitar lead here is bloody great and adds much to the effect I assume they want to have on the listener; a sense of sadness and dreariness. The two ending tracks are, as mentioned earlier, older demo recordings, and for these versions the music might not be perfected, but I still enjoy these versions much more since they haven’t distorted the hell out of the vocals. Despite the weaker and thin production of the demo tracks I can still hear exactly what’s going on, and that makes the songs that much more enjoyable.

The riffing’s most of the time rather tedious in all of its repetition, just as the drumming is very basic and even more tedious. A little more variation in both departments would do a great deal to enhance the listening experience, but for now I wouldn’t be able to tell Kilte apart from every other depressive black metal band out there.

Originally written for My Last Chapter