Through Depression and Ruins

"Through Depression and Ruins" can be considered as an underground stereotype (in a good way) of a minimalistic style of depressive black metal, as well as a very emotional (and well-produced) debut.

The vocals are amazing, they can go from a classical black metal shriek to great DSBM yells, which reminded me of vocalists like Nattramn or even Rainer Landfermann in Dictius te Necare, and give the general sound of the demo an atmospheric touch, making it more interesting. The guitar work is interesting too: mixing clean and distorted guitars (well produced), which create an ambient feeling. The riffs can be considered typical for the genre, without including a lot of technicality or innovation, contributing to the minimalistic essence of the demo. About bass guitar there's not much to say, except it has a weak sound, and it doesn't become a good "low-sound" base, taking away forcefulness while contributing to the general ambient feeling. It follows the rhythm guitar's riffs, again with not much technicality.

I usually consider classical music structures such as "Intermezzos" or "Outros" original when they are included in metal, and this is not an exception: here the melancholic piano arpeggios act as a summary of the previous songs, with heartbreaking vocals behind it. The concluding shot reminded me of Nocturnal Depression's Reflections of a sad soul.

On the other hand, the quality of the songwriting might fit well in minimalistic DBM standards, but I found it a bit boring. And although the drums are very well produced and played I also missed some more blast beats and tempo changes on certain songs (specifically in "Lost memories" ) and more harmonic variety (I am a bit tired of hearing I-VI progressions in minor tonalities). I wish they could provide their lyrics too.

Despite being their first demo, I found it as a very solid depressive black metal debut, it totally exceeded my expectations.