Double album with gatefold cover. Limited 450 copies

While looking deeper into crust, I happened to come acrossOakland, California´s Embers. Their first full-length, Shadows, isan exercise in balance, so delicately put together that a fleck ofdust could very easily send it crashing down into shameful failure.Its band members seem to be keenly aware of this as well, so theyhave built their album with enough care and cunning so that theirwork would remain elegantly in place in the midst of a cataclysm.Songs transition constantly between the gorgeous melodies andoverwhelming heaviness of doom metal and the jugular-rippingtremolo and blasting of black metal, often shifting back and forthbetween both styles and venturing into the unanticipated marvels ofthe new and original yet so familiar and comfortable. There is atangible focus to recreate both genres faithfully and very capably,while giving them space to interact with each other in a blend sograceful that it´s difficult to imagine how this could sounddifferent than it does. All the while the general feel of the musicis always intact and following a very natural flow in their songstructure. In other words, the album features a surprising amountof variety while embracing a very well defined core sound. Theheavy doom sections are pulverizing, the atmospheric sections aresoothing and beautiful (borderline post-metal at times, thinklatest Isis or Minsk) and the black metal parts vary between thebombastic crush of Emperor-In the Nightside Eclipse (minus theflamboyance in keyboards) and early 90s d-beat black metalgoodness. Songs never last a second more or a second less than theyshould, entirely avoiding a sin far too many bands commit, and thatcan ruin entire albums. This makes the album so streamlined thatgoing through its 65 minutes of play time is astonishingly simple.If we add the many moods this album is suited for, Shadows becomesan experience so inviting, so easy to listen to that is almostguaranteed to get regular play. This speaks volumes about theband´s fantastic ear for fine songwriting. When a band depends somuch on their songwriting, there is little use in discussinginstruments as different entities, since technicality is clearlynot what Embers is aiming for. No instrument particularly standsout, and this as a good thing. This album achieves the Herculeantask of delivering the characteristic hatred of black metal and thebeauty and dismal sorrow of doom metal in such a calculated fashionthat the moods seem to overlap over each other creating an amalgamof atmospheres suited for as many states of mind as you mayconceive. Where some albums are black or white (exclusively orsimultaneously) this album wholeheartedly relishes the infinitehues of grey between the two. The experience is (for lack of abetter word) magical and, provided the right conditions, this shapeshifter can easily transform to sink its tendrils into your wounds,provide a soft, healing caress or persuade you intoshotgun-blasting something out of sheer rage, as per your whim.Clear cut Album of the Year contender. The sound is absolutelyunique, but comparisons could be drawn to such diverse bands asLudicra, Gallhammer, Mar De Grises, and Emperor.

Track list:
1. Eucharist
2. Foresaken
3. Shadows
4. Plague
5. Malediction
6. Dreams
7. Resurrection
8. Awakening

Condition cover: nm

Condition vinyl: nm

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Skickgradering:

M (mint)/NM(near mint) = Nyskick/Mycket bra exemplar
EX (excellent) = Mycket fin och välvårdad
VG+ (very good +) = Bra skick, normalanvänd skiva
VG (very good) = Sliten men spelar ändå bra
G (good) = Väldigt sliten skiva som kan hacka
+/- = mindre skillnader inomgraderingsområdet