Incredible second album from Selbst, a group active since 2010 originally from Venezuela and then relocated to Chile. The first self-titled album was received very positively by critics, so no surprise that its successor Relatos de angustia is a true masterpiece. Selbst is a vision of multi-instrumentalist/vocalist/composer/lyricist ‘N’ to bring about the “maximum realisation of the Being” through an alignment of strident power and wild, untrammelled fervour that reveals its true majesty upon repeated listening.
There is a uniquely self-possessed otherness to Selbst’s take on crushingly immersive Black Metal - encompassing as it does contemporary French and Icelandic strains of transcendent dissonance, hammer-blows subsumed from the mid ‘90s Norwegian canon, the alienated textures of DSBM and the belligerent singularity of the Polish hordes tempered on occasion with melodic sensibilities akin to top-tier post-Black Metal.
Above all, this is a record that exploits its spacious production to revel in guitar-work of the highest order: utilising a crystalline, vicious and palpable tone which bleeds and breaks in all the right places, almost through-composed volleys of hypnotic arpeggios and liquescent leads invoke a series of stunning non-linear ascents and suddenly poignant leaps towards jagged ancient formations below.
A self-assured display of tumultuous Black Metal mastery.
Notes:
Relatos de angustia was released on August 7 2020 through Debemur Morti Productions.ù
Personnel:
N: vocals, guitars, bass
Guest musicians:
Nebiros Sad: Drum session
Rogger Canonico: Vocals (clean) (track 7)
There is a uniquely self-possessed otherness to Selbst’s take on crushingly immersive Black Metal - encompassing as it does contemporary French and Icelandic strains of transcendent dissonance, hammer-blows subsumed from the mid ‘90s Norwegian canon, the alienated textures of DSBM and the belligerent singularity of the Polish hordes tempered on occasion with melodic sensibilities akin to top-tier post-Black Metal.
Above all, this is a record that exploits its spacious production to revel in guitar-work of the highest order: utilising a crystalline, vicious and palpable tone which bleeds and breaks in all the right places, almost through-composed volleys of hypnotic arpeggios and liquescent leads invoke a series of stunning non-linear ascents and suddenly poignant leaps towards jagged ancient formations below.
A self-assured display of tumultuous Black Metal mastery.
Notes:
Relatos de angustia was released on August 7 2020 through Debemur Morti Productions.ù
Personnel:
N: vocals, guitars, bass
Guest musicians:
Nebiros Sad: Drum session
Rogger Canonico: Vocals (clean) (track 7)
