Harps of the Ancient Temples

After hearing Vinterriket did some writing with these guys I became interested in hearing some of there material but seeing as any Nocternity full lengths are almost non-existent in a US based distro this 7” was the next best thing. After my first listen I couldn’t really make heads or tails of the music so I just put the EP away in my collection, until I got Onyx then it all made sense.

Musically this is all about atmosphere. Vinterriket’s synth becomes a third guitar in the workings of the music and thus the band has managed to make an atmosphere within an atmosphere. The sound has three layers; the distorted nightmare with the drums and I’m assuming the bass guitar in it, the clean layer with the synth and melodic guitars, and the vocals which are so buried they sound like a voice in the wind.

The B side track has a little bit more rhythm and consistency to it than the A side. While the A side is practically devoid of any thing but atmosphere (which is by no means a bad thing) the B side track has some what of an existence to it. There is something that could almost be classified as a riff which gives the song its feel and the drumming is consistent with this so you almost get a folk song that was metalized then transformed into whatever you would label the A side track.

Harps of the Ancient Temples isn’t for everybody obviously. The bass, drums and vocals are lost almost entirely, you know they are there but finding them is impossible. The only things you can focus on are the synth and the melodic guitars which are balanced perfectly against the mess of distortion; you can almost see the different sound layers (I probably should actually sleep before I listen to this again).

This is limited to 500 copies so get it while you can, trust me if you live on atmospheric music this will keep you happy for some time.