Into Shadows Act II: Through Horned Shadows Glimpse

Moribund records has been releasing a lot of black metal along the lines of this album recently - extremely droning and repetitious, thinly produced, dynamically flat, almost like noticeable changes or memorable moments were avoided in favor of setting a mood. It's totally monotonous, but at least for a couple tracks I actually kind of like the haunting, atmospheric smear that is this album. There's a very intuitive feel about all of it, like it was constructed in some state of sleep deprivation or inebriation. The musicians seem to be in a kind of trance, and they manage to draw me into it as well. If nothing else, the playing sounds honest to me.

I must say, this band's marketing as 'avant-garde black metal' is absurd, and I'm glad I wasn't expecting that when I first heard them. These are old school BM riffs of the midpaced variety, both in rhythm and melodic content, even if the melodies are often quite good and effectively mournful, and more creatively harmonized and complex than a lot of bands out there. Nothing about them really changes when the distorted is turned on and off... there are only two settings. The few other elements in the mix (string synths, barely audible bass) are certainly standard fare, as well. All that really sets this band apart are their song lengths, which are often in excess of 10 minutes, a fact that may be misleading. These tracks do not progress in any noticeable manner during their running times. Instead, the extra time is used for more repetitions of the same riffs, which, when coupled with the rough and rigid, relentlessly plodding drum machine, actually enhances the stoned, zone-out state this album can produce. I would refer to this music as an especially minimalist, atmospheric take on the original black metal sound... which was already both of those things.

The vocals sound like someone being tortured in the next room over - pained, yes, but mostly unrelated to the music and rather distracting. The most coherent parts are quite generic black metal vox, and are pushed to the background. I do think some kind of vocal was needed. There is a pretty nice hollow, windy howl that crops up now and then, but the performance is not consistent. See Silencer's "Death - Pierce Me" for a lesson in how vocals can be used to truly disturbing effect on an album with this sort of mood.

It's kind of strange listening to an album with so little tension... Chord progressions that would be ominous, if played by a band with some dynamics or ability to surprise, just sort of lay there on "Into Shadows Act II". In the end, though, it's that quality that I'm going to remember about this album/band. In many respects they fall short, but Azrael have managed to communicate a feeling to me with this album. Time, I suppose, will tell how much replay value something like this has. 3 stars.

Both Moribund Records and Azrael the band want you to believe this is a progressive piece of work. I’m not getting it (and I bet Moribund doesn’t really believe it either, but albums must be promoted). Please keep in mind I know and love progressive music. For instance I own five Gentile Giant albums and it doesn’t get much more progressive than that. This however is half baked riffs, playing and arrangements in a 71 minute, uber kvlt no song title package, begging you to think it’s something new or avant-garde.

Since I love raw and dark black metal, neither the stark production, sterile drum sound, samey vocals, and tinny guitars bother me in the least bit. There are also many who believe progressive must equal musical complexity & perfection. I disagree, so the errors in notes and riffing that occasionally pop up don’t bother me either. What bothers me is I struggle and struggle each time I listen to this to find something interesting, catchy, emotional, heavy, dark and most importantly memorable in this piece of work.

There are a few brief moments of interesting ideas. I find the non black metal track in location number three to be very eerie and ominous. However moments like these are few and far between. Too often shrieking vocals are placed over blasting drums and tremolo picked guitar lines. The guitar riffs themselves are often boring single note patterns that have no lasting melodic appeal and are so mundane that one can come up similar ideas in about 2 seconds. Since four of the seven tracks are well over 10 minutes, boredom will set in really fast.

Often music that is so ahead of its time isn’t appreciated by those in a scene at the time of its release. I have certainly dismissed albums only to revisit years later and wonder what I was thinking (and vice versa). I don’t believe for a second that anyone will care or view this work as something progressive when looked back upon. I think this is a boring, meandering and uninteresting piece of work. But I could be wrong, so check back in 10 years.

Into Shadows act II is truly an album that takes black metal to another realm.
I heard this album after the self...goat album, so I could clearly hear how the later tracks on this album were precursors for the new album. The production is pretty thin, and the only drawback to this release. Although you can hear all the instruments clearly, it lacks overall heaviness and thickness, especially in the electric guitars and the drums(which are probably a drum maching). The songwriting varies quite a bit on this release. The early tracks are very similar to act 1 in the more traditional black metal vein, but you can hear hints of the modern Azrael sound seeping through with the use of heavy acoustics and abstract compositions. The middle track is a solo bass peice that sounds like a horror fillm soundtrack, a very good one at that. The last 3 tracks are were Azrael begins to find their sound a bit, and the songwriting becomes much more streamlined and polished. The 6th track(none of songs have names) is probably the best on the record, it starts out with a mid paced almost doomy atmosphere and goes to a great acoustic breakdown before kicking into some excellent epic black metal to finish things off.

I would recommend this album to fans of experimental and atmospheric black metals. Fans of traditional raw black metal, will probably not like this album very much, but thats not to take away form the music at all. This album is a strong sign of great things to come.

Production: Actually, pretty good. The drums are tuned in a way that promotes a Godzilla like dominance; the microphones must have been set up just right to capture the giant drum sound presented on this disc(or maybe they just used a drum machine and a computer to enhance the sound, who knows). Guitar tones here are obviously influenced by early Burzum; recorded here in an almost identical way to said influence. Vocals are in typical black metal style; nothing innovative, but not the focus either. The bass track is interesting though; my assumption is that a fretless is used to achieve the unique sound. Also present is the use of keyboards; but used in such a subtle way that it cleverly adds texture without becoming the focus.



At first the listener may be unsure what to think of Azrael; especially if this is their first experience. With this album having no track names, no band photos, no info at all really, one may wonder a couple of things:

Is this band trying too hard to "out underground" their contemporaries with an almost pretentious like approach, or -

Are they possibly just too much of a smart ass for their own good(the stupid belching at the beginning for example), or -

Is this a legitimate attempt at creating something genuine?

What Azrael's strength is though, is a unique understanding of how to use the medium of black metal to create a purely aesthetic creation; ice cold, at times paranoid, emotion. This listening experience is so intriguing that one finds themselves drawn back for repeated analysis despite the (possible) initial turnoff.

After getting caught up in the emotional journey this album leads, the listener, perhaps unconsciously, separates the art from the artist; then only caring about what aesthetic provocation this music brings. Track number three, for example, is a pure ambient piece, accomplishing through the use of odd instrumentation the paranoia mentioned above.

The end result here is the possibility of the whole package coming full circle; with the listening experience becoming so personal, one ends up not caring(or wanting) the tracks to have names, the booklet to have liner notes, etc., for those may take away from the overall aesthetic.

Maybe these recluses are too smart for their own good, knowing in advance what kind of journey the listener will partake in. Then again, my intuition tells me not give these guys too much credit.

Music, when done correctly, can take the illusion of conventional and accepted generalities and shred them, putting a person face to face with reality itself. It can provoke intuition in the direction of knowledge where science can only stumble upon by accident. Albums like this attempt to bring the listener to these truths, and despite it's turn offs, the music itself does deliver.

That’s what the text on my promo copy reads, and it’s honestly the most intelligent thing I can find about Azrael. Of course, at first it seems possible to withstand, but as soon as he (Lord Samaiza) to growl, everything that previously was… well, it’s ruined. His growls are of the cookie-monster style, but mixed in a way so that you only hear someone with severe stomachaches. Oh well, he burps from time to time too.

At the same moment as his shitty vocals reaches us, the black, or at least the metal music starts playing. Before there was some awkward intro that needs no more consideration. Problem is though, the black metal that’s approaching is no improvement in any way. All right – at a few occasions there are some quite interesting riffs and keyboards – I’ll give you that. At times there are even some distorted heavy metal solos. Except for a riff or two, and the decent production (it’s rather clear, but far from grim or raw, more warm than anything else) they are pretty much what’s good about this album. Something that happens a lot more often than the decent elements are that the drums turn shitty. I can take a static rhythm or two, but this exaggerated use of the high-hat, sometimes in conjunction with the static rhythm really puts me off.

This is just way too unstructured, haphazard and bad. Too bad it’s long too. This mindless mix does nothing but disturbs. I’m of the view that if you want to do raw black metal, it’s fine. Melodic bm? No problem. Some grim cliché metal of utter frost would work to. But you must not record three albums, one of each aforementioned style and then mix them onto each other. Avant-garde means before the weapon, and apparently no one had time to shoot the Azrael members before they published this. Seriously though, this may be infinitely original, but even so avant-garde shouldn’t be any excuse for sucking. Also, I hope the Azrael way will turn out to be a dead end that no one follows.