Perdition II

Working my way a bit through the back catalogue of Immortal Frost Productions I came across Astral Winter, which as far as I understand is a pure solo project. "Perdition II" is the fourth and most recent full length (and I believe the follow-up to Perdition I) and contains nine mostly instrumental tracks with a total duration of about 40 minutes, which presents the listener with a peaceful winter picture accompanied by beautifully played melodies. While I am not always in the mood for this kind of music everything here is expertly done and it is obvious that there is a lot of artistical vision and talent behind it. While there is not much aggressive about this album the vision presented through it should resonate with a lot of black metal fans who are known for preferring loneliness and the calmness of nature to being surrounded by a big crowd and industrial noise.

The soundscapes on the album exude a chill and mountainous freshness, very well illustrated in its cover art. Simultaneously tranquil, there is also a dose of inspiring epicness in the notes played, through which we have the chance to be transported a little bit into a more magical and unfamiliar world, to which we are at the same time inextricably linked. The combination of instruments and real natural sounds helps a lot to create this fairytale atmosphere. When we add the musician's beautiful performance and a decent production, we get a complete composition that we can get lost in. Especially when raw scream comes into the picture (at the end of "At The Gates Of Creation", for example) the picture of being lost in a winter storm appears before the inner eye.

It is a set of deeply sad feelings rendered by a simple combination of narrative acoustic parts, dancing piano themes and supporting synth lines. Now and then there is a discreetly present narrative voice. Many times you get to hear elements of nature ingeniously mixed between the above elements. The whole provides an intriguing insight into the mind of mastermind Young. We also know this gentleman from the melodic black metal band Atra Vetosus. Favorite track on this album is the opening track, Corridors Of Time. The reason is simple, the melody told is automatically converted in my head into a melodic black metal banger with ultra-fast blast beats and scream vocals. In the way it as available this album would make a wonderful soundtrack on cold winter nights or in those moments when we wish we were somewhere on the mountains' hidden trails or walking around on snow covered fields. I have a bit of a difficult time to really rate this album as it does not present the classic structures of a metal record. As I am not overly familiar with this kind of acoustic/ambient music I do not have a whole lot of comparisons, but listening to it makes me feel relaxed so I assume this is definitely something positive.