With this review, we are going to Bulgaria. Dimholt is a Bourgas-based Bulgarian band which started in 2003 at the hands of Monolithe (vocals) and Asen (guitar, drums, drum programming). In the following years, other members joined the band; the current line-up was completed in 2007 with the entry of drummer Stanimir into the band. Their debut album Liberation Funeral came to light only eleven years after the founding of the band, even though a demo in 2007, Aegri Somnia, and an EP in 2010, Live Somnia, had already been released.
On the Facebook page, the band describes its genre as “psychedelic black metal”. I think, the psychedelic influences are particularly evident in two songs: “In Tombs” and “Armageddon”. The former at the end and the latter in the middle contain a section with slower chords and a repetitive and obsessive rhythm pattern. These slower sections create an atmosphere similar to stoner doom. I find that this type of solution be peculiar of the style of this band. I also find that there are influences from German black metal, especially Dark Fortress.
Liberation Funeral is a really well made album. Since the result is so good, I would say it was worth to wait eleven years for the first full length. Such compositional maturity and awareness are not always to be found in a band making its debut. In addition to the above mentioned stoner-like parts, Dimholt are capable of creating intricate and morbid riffs, variations, arpeggios, so that Liberation Funeral is a varied album that never bores. The bass is not just a filler that repeats the notes of the guitar, but it really completes the music with a clear line: it is played like a bass and not like a guitar.
Liberation Funeral goes straight to the point: no intro and the first song begins immediately with blast beats and a sick and morbid riff that immediately captures one’s attention. Unfortunately there are also some weaknesses: the production is not the best and the sound quality should have been better: the guitars are not very clean, and the drums sound a bit artificial. The band has a drummer anyway, Stanimir, who takes care both of drums and of drum programming. Maybe the band is still looking for a personal sound or it is just that the fact that the album is self-produced may have had consequences; I would have liked to listen to Liberation Funeral with a better sound.
Monolithe is responsible for the text writing, which covers different topics. The themes of the lyrics range from a severe criticism against humanity to reflections about the afterlife. In any case, Monolithe does not give us a reassuring and optimistic picture. Misanthropic barbs against humanity are thrown in “... at the End ..”, which foreshadows a desolate mankind, which, because of its greed, is abandoned to itself without grace from above. In “In Tomb” the afterlife is described only as a place of darkness, and not as a beautiful place as we usually imagine it. Finally “The Neverhealing Wound” is perhaps the climax of this unfriendly picture; life is here considered to be a wound and suffering: “This life is a wound / And we live silenced / In search for the cure / But can we find it…?”. The keywords in the texts of Dimholt are desperation, solitude, nihilism.
In conclusion, Liberation Funeral is a really good and interesting album. Good job.
Notes:
Liberation Funeral was self-released on April 1, 2014.
On the Facebook page, the band describes its genre as “psychedelic black metal”. I think, the psychedelic influences are particularly evident in two songs: “In Tombs” and “Armageddon”. The former at the end and the latter in the middle contain a section with slower chords and a repetitive and obsessive rhythm pattern. These slower sections create an atmosphere similar to stoner doom. I find that this type of solution be peculiar of the style of this band. I also find that there are influences from German black metal, especially Dark Fortress.
Liberation Funeral is a really well made album. Since the result is so good, I would say it was worth to wait eleven years for the first full length. Such compositional maturity and awareness are not always to be found in a band making its debut. In addition to the above mentioned stoner-like parts, Dimholt are capable of creating intricate and morbid riffs, variations, arpeggios, so that Liberation Funeral is a varied album that never bores. The bass is not just a filler that repeats the notes of the guitar, but it really completes the music with a clear line: it is played like a bass and not like a guitar.
Liberation Funeral goes straight to the point: no intro and the first song begins immediately with blast beats and a sick and morbid riff that immediately captures one’s attention. Unfortunately there are also some weaknesses: the production is not the best and the sound quality should have been better: the guitars are not very clean, and the drums sound a bit artificial. The band has a drummer anyway, Stanimir, who takes care both of drums and of drum programming. Maybe the band is still looking for a personal sound or it is just that the fact that the album is self-produced may have had consequences; I would have liked to listen to Liberation Funeral with a better sound.
Monolithe is responsible for the text writing, which covers different topics. The themes of the lyrics range from a severe criticism against humanity to reflections about the afterlife. In any case, Monolithe does not give us a reassuring and optimistic picture. Misanthropic barbs against humanity are thrown in “... at the End ..”, which foreshadows a desolate mankind, which, because of its greed, is abandoned to itself without grace from above. In “In Tomb” the afterlife is described only as a place of darkness, and not as a beautiful place as we usually imagine it. Finally “The Neverhealing Wound” is perhaps the climax of this unfriendly picture; life is here considered to be a wound and suffering: “This life is a wound / And we live silenced / In search for the cure / But can we find it…?”. The keywords in the texts of Dimholt are desperation, solitude, nihilism.
In conclusion, Liberation Funeral is a really good and interesting album. Good job.
Notes:
Liberation Funeral was self-released on April 1, 2014.
| Tracklist: 1. Blindead 2. The Neverhealing Wound 3. Chaos Reborn 4. The Shades of Night 5. Black Horizon 6. In Tombs 7. Armageddon 8. Ruins 9. ...at the End... 10. Theodicy | 04:39 04:45 06:25 04:28 07:09 07:40 06:27 04:57 05:54 06:12 58:36 |
Personnel:
Monolithe - Vocals, Lyrics
Asen - Guitars
Rumen - Guitars
Yavor - Bass
Stanimir - Drums, Drum Programming
Monolithe - Vocals, Lyrics
Asen - Guitars
Rumen - Guitars
Yavor - Bass
Stanimir - Drums, Drum Programming
Text by Herjann
herjann@unholyblackmetal.com
herjann@unholyblackmetal.com