Register Forgot login?

© 2002-2024
Encyclopaedia Metallum

Privacy Policy

Umbra Nihil > The Borderland Rituals > Reviews
Umbra Nihil - The Borderland Rituals

A beautiful album. - 95%

chinaface, June 26th, 2015

I’ll start by saying that this album is not for everyone – those who are looking for an album in the vein of Gnoia and Umbra Nihil’s split with Aarni may be disappointed, I certainly was when I first heard The Borderland Rituals. I was expecting the other-worldly feel of their previous releases as well as the gorgeous vocals which lent an enormous emotional impact to the music, but what this album offered was a more traditional doom riffing accompanied by a monotonous voice (which I found incredibly annoying at first).

After a number of listens I, however, begun to see the beauty in this album as a standalone, even if it wasn’t a progression in the same direction as the other releases (which was what I was initially hoping for). The songs drift beautifully from one to the other and this album is incredibly satisfying to listen to start to finish. The monotonous vocals actually suit the instrumentals well – they pierce through the solid riffs and some of the gentler guitar and drum sequences, creating a strong impact. The guitars sound superb (the traditional doom and stoner-y riffs are quite catchy), the drummer does a bang up job, and the progressive aspects of this album are simply excellent.

I would have to say the opening track is probably the least likeable on the album simply because the sing-songy guitar riffs and vocal parts sound a bit silly, but the progression of the music during this song really saves it. There are sing-songy moments in the other songs but they are more pleasant.

This album has a powerful and consistent sound throughout it, and it’s definitely one of my favourites to listen to. It’s a shame that it is so underrated.

Simple and organic - 70%

autothrall, November 4th, 2009

Since their excellent debut Gnoia a few years ago, I had been eagerly awaiting the next doom opus from one of Finland's weirdest bands. I have to say, while I couldn't get into this nearly as much as that earlier work, it's still an interesting piece which strips the form to its roots, re-visiting the psychedelia from which the prototype doom (and arguably all of metal) sprung forth.

There are only five tracks here, but a few of them are on the length side. "Welcome to the Borderlands" is a slow, psychedelic piece alternating sparse, spacious riffing with Vilpir's manly and creepy vocal slug crawling. By the end it picks up with a simplistic, heavier riff accompanied by highly fuzzy bass. "Open the Gate" takes a simple, twining, mystical riff with a folkish feel to it and drives it into a cradle of despair. "Leaving the Body" is a short song for this band at just about 3 minutes, starts off as an instrumental but the vocals come in half way through, while "Sea of Sleep" is a delicate but immersive instrumental with tinny leads and effective atmosphere. The closing track "The Sign of Death" is the album's longest, over 14 minutes, and easily the most powerful thing here. When he starts crooning the 'chorus' like sections over those evil as fuck riffs, and you can hear the slight use of the keyboard to accent the sorrow and grim majesty of the song, it's just magic.

The mix on the album is very simple and organic, they could be playing this live right in your living room. The instruments all sound great. The drums may seem a little thin but it feels intentional. In the end this is not as good as Gnoia but if you're a fan of avant-garde or 70s doom rock/metal then you should at least check it out for it's magnum opus, "The Sign of Death", which'll do almost any old Sabbath or Pentagram lover good.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Its Borderland Alright. - 60%

Perplexed_Sjel, May 19th, 2009

When I first heard Umbra Nihil, I was ranting and raving to anyone who would listen about how talented they were, even to non-metal fans. Their sound was so bizarre that, in my mind, they could have attracted people who don’t normally listen to metal, let alone doom metal. This Finnish act come as little surprise these days, unfortunately. Years ago, when the band sounded fresh, I had no idea Aarni existed, a project consisting of a member from this band, so the novelty of a experimental band attempting to breach the formulaic style of doom no longer seemed as extravagant as it once did. Aarni are the oddball of the family, the proverbial black sheep, though the two styles don’t sound particularly similar at all, so comparisons are limited to band members and other such small similarities that bear no burden upon the musical style. Although Umbra Nihil have been described as doom metal for several years, over recent times the band has started to draw in the progressive nuts who claim that this brand of unattainable metal falls into their most favoured sub-genre of metal - progressive. To me and my insipid personality, Umbra Nihil aren’t bound by genre distinctions and do not crave the normality of most musicians in wanting to be accepted by a certain branch of metal, and metal fan.

They’re mature and beyond the normal restraints that genre characteristics impose harshly on most other bands and whilst this does them a lot of favours, it can also have the unfortunate juxtaposed affect. Whilst some will call this experimental genius, others will note the pretension that spills off the soundscapes and drowns us beneath the capable hands and minds of the musicians on show. Whilst experimentation can be a desirable personality trait for music to have, it can encircle and enclose the style in its own personal bubble, not allowing the outsiders to reach this now inaccessible brand of music. Through being experimental, Umbra Nihil strap guns to their legs and repeatedly shoot themselves in the foot due to the fact that they’re limited their market and target audience. I was impressed with the debut and although there are some spectacular moments to be found (please be referred to the sombre ‘Sea of Sleep’ for examples), the band confine themselves to a certain type of audience who don’t normally appreciate the simplicities that come with listening to metal - particularly when you’re familiar with the realms of doom and its often repetitive, slow and somewhat generic sound. Umbra Nihil have become more polished, certainly in terms of the production, which is cleaner but unadventurous - which is, once again, juxtaposed with the overall musicianship of the band, which is experimental.

The band sound more mature, again, notably on vocals which a cleaner than the previous effort. Although these clean vocals give a maturity to the performance, they offer boredom as a substitute to previous qualities that the raw instrumentation and vocals that was presented with more emotion than technicalities on the debut, ‘Gnoia’. My main concerns don’t lie in the musicians themselves, as individuals because they’re all capable of producing sublime segments that thrill despite the apathetic, crawling and creeping soundscapes that move forwards so slowly, like a snail, drifting through life unnoticed for the most part until they find themselves in the way of the fast moving crowds who will stop at nothing to pass by without being forced to slow down their progression, even if that means crushing the snail. At times, the material here reminds me of a poem by William Blake called “The Fly” in which a fly is narrating about his fragile existence, how he could be brushed aside by man without a second thought and even if he died, the man would have no clue as to the kinds of pain it would inflict upon the fly and his life. The material here verges on boring from time to time and is easily brushed aside by the listeners wandering mind, unable to focus on the instrumentation, but drifting away into more interesting surroundings, like the imagination. The instrumentation is fine for a short period of time, but after a sustained period, it becomes dull and uninteresting.

The bass sounds so laboured behind the intrusive guitars that remind me of a lesser Electric Wizard - who I find are vastly overrated anyway. The atmosphere is the same throughout, shackled like some sort of delinquent in a Victorian prison cell in ol’ London town. The times at which the pace picks up, which isn’t often, the atmosphere is screaming for its release. Screaming for the musicians to allow it a chance of unfolding into something beautiful, but it never delivers. The atmosphere is restricted by the dull production that doesn’t engross the listener at all. The vocals, alongside the guitars, don’t create a sound that seems to suggest perfect harmony. Instead, they violently react against one another, causing all sorts of internal destruction's within the constructions of the songs. ‘Open The Gate’ is a fine example, especially as it uses poor backing vocals that add little texture to the already flat soundscapes. This doesn’t indicate raw talent, it indicates misused talent, which is a shame. This goes down as a disappointing follow up and may even deter me from listening to the next record. I suppose I just wasn’t ready for this. Maybe, in a few years time, it will appeal to me. Here’s to hoping. Despite this, ‘The Sign of Death’, after its generic opening, does unfold into a classic Umbra Nihil song with strong bass and flowing guitars. The only major highlight.