Totalselfhatred

With a band name like Totalselfhatred, negative music is to be expected, and connotations of the depressive black metal substyle are more than obvious. Superficially speaking, these expectations could be considered accurate and correct, but in reality the music is not nearly as dark as suggested by the band's image. The self-titled debut explores a multitude of emotional states, and in a larger scale, hangs in a limbo between extreme negativity and hopefulness. It isn't, in fact, total selfhatred. The project features the excellent vocalist Corvus, who delivered some astonishing black metal scream performances on several Horna albums. Fans of Horna, however, may find it difficult to enjoy the music of Totalselfhatred despite the great vocalist's involvement, firstly because the take on black metal here is almost the complete opposite of Horna's, and secondly due to the ex-Horna screamer's sharing the duties with a colleague-in-vox, who delivers those half-howled vocals as pioneered by Varg himself. Corvus' parts are genuinely great passionate screams, but far too low in the mix (which is quite perplexing, as is the fact that another vocalist's services were used, considering Corvus' immense abilities).

The same vocalist is about the full extent of similarities between Horna and this, as Totalselfhatred is like whipped cream in juxtaposition with the raw, evil forms of its genre, with the smooth production, the unassuming riffing and the songs flowing like silk and mostly lacking any point of actual contrast. Thematical variety is in abundance, but the changes are unexcitingly smooth, and the less sappy parts sound incredibly relaxed and pastoral considering that blast beats are implemented, the guitars are fairly distorted, and it's fucking Corvus screaming his lungs to pieces over the music. At its most evil, the band has certain elements in common with another new and different form of black metal played by bands such as Dødsengel, Myrkr and even Ondskapt: said evil riffing is meandering, emotionally ambiguous and hard to connect with, and evokes mainly unease. However, unlike these primarily evil and dark bands, Totalselfhatred chiefly explores wistful, even hopeful atmospheres (only to varying degrees), and in tracks like "Enlightenment" and "Total Self-Hatred", the music sounds like modern rock at its most melancholic, or the lightest moments of Swallow The Sun. Furthermore, as stated before, even when the mood is darker, the music merely leans somewhat towards evil, pathetically at that, and eventually collapses back into an atmosphere of a peaceful afternoon in a warm bath.

The production is not like either modern rock of Swallow The Sun, and it also has fewer similarities than the average Finnish black metal band with what is considered a normal black metal production. The production is not particularly raw, although it is appreciably distant. There is a hint of the wall-of-sound technique to be heard, and the acceptably high quality recording resounds with more colourfulness than in the average black metal record. True to the mild production, the album is musically pleasant and unabrasive to the point of being slippery and unmemorable. Admittedly it's clearly greater art than the bandwagon of sorry excuses for shoegazing black metal led by Alcest, or the pathetically counterfeit "atmospheric" black metal like Woods of Desolation, but not by a long way. It's in the category of affectedly emotive, melodic Finnish metal that almost completely lacks real substance and delivers saccharine, somewhat sad and somewhat beautiful music that never truly grabs you by the balls and throws you down the balcony. It's fully tolerable due to the fact that Totalselfhatred's plaintive, sorrowful atmosphere does not seem quite as feigned as in many other bands' music, but it quickly becomes difficult to enjoy due to the lack of edge and helplessly inadequate levels of aggression and powerful riffing. Ironically these creamy, mellow parts are the band's strength whereas the – let's not say evil parts, since that adjective would be misleading and factual only relatively – less saccharine material ultimately falls flat and seems unnecessary. Many Finnish bands have proved that a combination of light and dark elements can exist in black metal, but every quality band of said style has the capability to perform genuinely dark and repugnant black metal to make up for the moments of blissful light. Totalselfhatred, on the other hand, is black metal for people who should avoid becoming too upset due to weak heart or unnaturally great susceptibility to bad dreams from overly wacky experiences.