Under the Dying Sun

German black metal band Mrak play in a very minimalistic and raw style. More depressing than aggressive, their music is emotionally potent. "Under The Dying Sun" is the first of three demos they have recorded so far. While it is common for a band's first demo to dreadful and sometimes even incompetent, Mrak know what they are doing. This demo features one song, "Loneliness", that spans over fourteen minutes.

Mrak embody the lo-fi black metal sound. The guitar, and the whole demo to some extent, sounds grainy. Nothing is well produced, which makes sense here. Good production would crush the spirit of the music. This is supposed to be raw. In this case, raw music equals raw emotion. "Loneliness" features some slow parts which add to the aura of desolation.

While many of the tremolo guitar riffs don't stand out, they do much to add to the atmosphere. The drums aren't complicated, but they get the job done. They usually play pretty standard patterns and sometimes include repetitive double bass drumming. The hazy snarls of the vocalist are very much in the background, refusing to overpower the atmosphere of the song. Just past the middle of the track everything drops out leaving a clean guitar, which is underproduced like everything else. Soon the rest of the instruments reemerge and play along to the simple but memorable clean melody. This is no doubt the highlight of the song - something that is both very raw and atmospheric.

While this is by no means something that hasn't been done before, Mrak are good at what they do. This will be pleasurable to fans of their style. To people who are on the fence about the type of music they play, this has little chance of persuading you. For lo-fi black metal with atmosphere, these guys do it right - nothing more, nothing less.