Cestrefeld 1362

A jarring and angular recording, this. British one-man black metal Front Adalruna recorded and pesonally distributed this highly limited recording in 2007. A concept album of provincial folk tales from the geographical heart of the British Isles, "Cesterfield 1362" is as focused on creating a foreboding atmosphere as it is on delivering pummelling riffage.

Filled with ponderous keyboard interludes and wordy song titles ("Ascending to the World of Man (Satan's Journey to Cesterfeld)") "Cesterfield 1362" is a disjointed and compartmentalised album. Some tracks rattle away at the same idea for minutes at a time, whilst others have barely hit the first power chord before the guitar flies off into a soaring lead. In fact, one track ("The Virgin's Soul in Hell") suddenly bursts into an 8 bit rendition of a sea shanty, accompanied by choppy guitar strokes that would not sound out of place on a ska record. We also have no less than three "overture" tracks; none of which appears to have any similarity with the music that follows them. Perhaps they are 'conceptual' overtures only.

Whilst the songwriting may be described as eccentric, it is the production that literally squashes the life from this record. The guitar tone is ugly and bizarre and sounds overly digital. Similar to Namtar or Benighted Leams, the excessive processing makes the guitar sound one dimensional and flat. The vocals are literally ear-splitting, high-frequency distorted whispers. Like the guitars on Ulver's "Nattens Madrigal" but with excited trebles, the vocals may immediately make "Cesterfield 1362" unlistenable to those with a low threshold for pain.

Some of the ideas here are solid, and some are in fact excellent, but the execution does them no favours at all. With a lot of top class riff ideas and melodic lines, it would be encouraging to see Adalruna shed perhaps 30% of the unnecessary content next time, and employ an experienced sound technician along the way.


(Originally written for BLAST! zine #1)