Convivial Hermit (not yet published): Like in my review of Utlagr’s “1066”, it's always a great feeling to have low expectations usurped by an extraordinary album. Within a basic and rather unremarkable layout I found, with Trist (which, by the way, have no relation whatsoever to the German Lunar Aurora side-project), a surprisingly moving and passionate approach to melancholic music, full of raw energy and the kind of dense, deep atmospheres that black metal has largely forgotten in recent years. There are four tracks here in all, at around 10 minutes apiece and all played at a generally moderate, measured, almost "laid back" pace. There are no fast parts on the album, no blast beats. However, there are on occasion slow, doomy portions which are underlined with some very agonized, weeping lead guitars, making me imagine something like drops of rain slowly dripping along some dead, gray landscape. What makes the recording particularly interesting is heavy, loud drums, which, unusually, contain a sizable amount of variation with frequent rolls and fills to accentuate each riff iteration. These drums actually lend a sort of up-tempo feeling to the music at times, although this feeling is quickly brought back down (where it belongs) by the hypnotic riffs which are never tiring and which demonstrate a solid understanding of the principle of moderation and "enough is enough". Perhaps the least significant link I could find in this chain was in the vocal expression, as the vocals, which are buried very low in the mix, can conceivably be removed with little damage to the overall effect. However, they certainly do not interfere or make matters worse, and I think that is most important, as Stiny is a quality work of rough, purist black metal whichever way you look at it. I will be keeping my eyes (and ears) open for other recordings by them for certain.
Grave Concerns Ezine: For many years now, bands and projects like Leviathan, Xasthur, Nortt and Bethlehem have been releasing albums that belong to a genre called suicidal black metal. These albums never were for the people only into black metal to look cool or fit in, this genre is only truely enjoyable by the ones who feel that life on this planet is not all it's cracked up to be. I find myself taking a lot of the releases labeleled suicidal black metal with a grain of salt. There have been so many bad releases over the years by bedroom projects that it's hard to put any faith into a lot of these albums. I had heard many good things about the Trist releases though so I was a bit interested when I got "Stiny" in the mail. "Stiny" was released by Trist back in 2006 on Ars Magna Recordings and it was their first full-length album since the duo of Trist and P. formed in the Czech Republic back in 2003. After listening to just the opening track Samota, I knew this was going to be a good album. Handling all instruments except drums is vocalist Trist, who some may know from the black metal band Life is Pain. The droning fuzz that exudes from Trist's guitar creates an atmosphere of depression and agony that is almost smothering at times while his shrieking vocal delivery only serves to intensify the torturous feelings that he is trying to convey. The bass isn't very noticeable which is normal for this style but one thing I did notice was how much better an actual drummer, who can play decently, sounds over a drum machine. By having them mixed in properly so you can hear them, P.s drumming set's off the rest of the music on "Stiny". There's nothing real flashy or impressive coming from his drumkit but the four songs on this album don't need them to be. It's just the fact that you don't hear shitty and fake sounding programmed drums anywhere on here that makes the music sound that much better. I would recommend this excellent album for any fans of Xasthur or suicidal black metal in general.
Noktorn: The real problem with ’suicidal black metal’ is not, contrary
to popular belief, a matter of subject matter. Depression, suicidal ideation,
loneliness; these are all perfectly fine subjects for black metal to cover, as
they have been covered before numerous times in a perfectly acceptable,
non-suicidal manner. The real issue is the capability on the part of such
performers to express and structure those feelings in a quality manner. I don’t
doubt the sincerity of the vast majority of suicidal black metal musicians. I’m
sure many of them have felt true depression and misery at one point or another
(hell, I’m sure all of us have). However, I’m pretty sure that many of them
think that being depressed is enough in and of itself to express that depression
in an artistic manner. Of course, if feelings were artistic capability, nearly
all of us would be geniuses in our preferred field of self-expression, wouldn’t
we? But that’s not the case. Instead, the suicidal black metal scene, as
earnest as it might be, is generally populated by people who totally know what
it’s like to be depressed, but are about as subtle and complex as a football to
the groin about it.
Trist, on the other hand, both grasps the nature of depression as well as how to
express it in a competent and relatively unique way. Trist plays that typical
mid-slow suicidal black metal with lots of drawn out tremolo riffs and rock
beats and distant, shrieky vocal accompaniment. Aesthetically, everything’s
pretty standard, with the fuzzy, on the raw side production, general
instrumental and vocal timbre, and probably subject matter as well (not that I
speak Czech). The things that make ‘Stíny’ unique are much more subtle in
nature, mostly relegated to the more abstract realms of song structure and the
details that fill the four compositions that make up this album. It’s perhaps
not the perfect entity of the style, but it does go far as to defining how it
should sound in this, its purest state.
The central intriguing aspect is that despite how this is suicidal black metal,
a style that generally thrives off repetition, there’s far less repetition here
than normal. There are numerous, winding lead guitar sections that go on for
long sections of music without ever repeating, simply exploring the musical
environment in an almost funeral doom manner before joining back with the main
riff. The drums, also, have a fair bit of, if not complexity, variation. They
employ a frequently changing variety of fills, movements between cymbals during
the main rhythms, and have a generally more uptempo and active feel than one
would generally expect. The extremely sparse vocals are pushed far into the
background and are often unnoticeable unless you’re listening very actively;
their contribution to the music as a whole is essentially just to be another
layer of noise, not as a driving portion.
So when you get down to it, what we have here is really sort of a funeral
doomster’s take on suicidal black metal; the feeling is less purely depressive
and is more gloomy and introspective (though there is plenty of sadness, don’t
worry), and the music is hypnotic but still more centered on exploring the
atmosphere than it is really pounding the ’suicidal’ idea into the listener.
It’s a less completely straightforward take on the style, as bound in convention
as it generally is, and for that, it’s a worthwhile listen. I don’t think that
this is the album that will change most peoples’ opinions on suicidal black
metal; it’s too entrenched in the trappings of the genre to be some huge force
propelling new blood into it. For those who do enjoy it, though, and are
looking for a somewhat more mature exploration of it, I’d say it’s an excellent
purchase. Best listened if you come to it from the standpoint of ‘this will be
an average suicidal black metal album’; it allows one to soak in the new
elements much more thoroughly.