Subconscious

The fact that Terra Tenebrae attempted to immediately flatten the listener on his/her ass with their sole full-length Subconscious actually served to distinguish it from most of the Greek happenings of the 90s. Most of their peers were heavily steeped in keyboards, atmospherics and attempting to build a 'setting' for their songs, while Terra Tenebrae (i.e. 'Land of Darkness') were more concerned with beating on eardrums. That said, this is not entirely a vicious band, and they were capable of a broad dynamic range, merging together the aesthetics of black, thrash and melodic death metal into a sound entirely uncommon in Europe after the wave of At the Gates and Dissection, broke on all shores. There's plenty of accessible fare, including memorable guitar solos, buried within the vortex of hostility.

The members were not exactly newcomers by this point. Vocalist Gothmog had already been the front man on a few Thou Art Lord releases, and bassist Makis (Baron Blood of Necromantia) is also involved with this, and a few others from the Hellenic underground. But Subconscious was going for something admittedly less atmospheric and evil as the prime movers' other bands. I dare say it was more of a 'trendy' recording attempting to bridge the gap to the popular styles of its day, and so it has a sound nearly as Swedish as it is Greek. Tunes like "Count the Time", "The Killing Kind" and "A Dice for Two Souls" play it off straight with rapid, pummeling rhythms, while "Dying in the Mirror's Path" is essentially old school Florida-style death with a hint of thrash, and you can hear riffs in there that are reminiscent of Death and Obituary. The musicians are honestly pretty tight, though the mix is not. Gothmog's gnarled, bloody drawl is interesting, but does get monotonous the way he cants these lines over the music.

You can tell that a lot of work went into the guitars, though, and they soar and sink through a large spectrum of battle charges, acoustic segues, and fell glories. That said, they are not all that catchy unless you're a total die hard for Dissection, The Crown, Sacramentum, and other bands in the melodic Swede family. Very little of the plodding Greek maneuvers that dominate that style of black metal, though you can hear a few parallels to Thou Art Lord. Subconscious is far from an incompetent obscurity, but ultimately it has nothing enduring or unique to offer, so it's no surprise that it went largely unheard. Now, earlier I had mentioned that this was their only full-length. As Terra Tenebrae, this is the case, but the band would eventually change their name to Soulskinner, performing a more traditional death metal style, and release a few more albums in the 21st century, which are more solidly executed than this one.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

I deeply adore the Greek Metal scene. The unique kind of riffs, the subtle melodies to the distinctive keyboard use. Since I discovered it, I've spent a lot of time with tracking down albums and demos by Greek Black and Death Metal bands. My newest discovery is Terra Tenebrae (now known as "Soulskinner") and their debut album "Subconscious".

First off, the album definitely has the Greek feeling that fans of the scene will adore. It's especially noticeable in the rhythm guitar work. The lead guitars are generally pretty well executed, while not being overly technical or extraordinary. There are even a few clean passages around, but I'll talk about them later. At times the guitar work is a bit sloppy (a few parts in "A Dice For Two Souls" come to mind) and the leads a bit off key, but that can be forgiven.

The main drawback is the vocal work. Gothmog's growls are mid-ranged and never change to anything else and are therefore very monotonous. This wouldn't be a big problem if the vocals weren't so weak. All the other instruments tend to overshadow the vocals by a great margin, so the vocals often descend into undecipherable and slightly distracting mumbling.

The drumming sounds very real but I have no idea whether it's a machine or a human. Lots of doublebass is used, as well as a fair amount of blastbeats and groovy rhythms. Varied describes it best. Gives the album a few more points.

The bass is generally not audible, except for a few parts where it actually shines through with some neat and heavy-as-hell bass lines.

The production is kind of muddy and sometimes the instruments blend into one big mesh of noise, which can be quite distracting, but overall it is acceptable.

These clean guitar passages i mentioned earlier are probably the album's main highlight. They are very effective in bringing some variety into the album, which is kind of monotonous, if taken as a whole. While the drumming is indeed varied, the distorted guitar riffs are not very memorable, and the vocals only make things worse. While these clean licks are rather simple, they are memorable and add a lot of atmosphere and depth to the songs they appear in. Sadly, there are only a few clean guitar parts to be found.

Conclusion: "Subconscious" is not a prime example of what Greek Extreme Metal is about and NOT recommended if you are new to the style, but it's definitely worth checking out if you can bear the horrid vocals and the recurrent monotony in the guitar work. Try it for those few clean parts only.