Underdark​ / Antre

Following up their 2016 (2017) debut EPs, Underdark and Antre return with a single song each on this split. Overall, what's presented is a small package of atmospheric black metal that leaves one hoping for future, better-developed material.

Kicking off the split with "Smell of autumn", Underdark manage to show both what they were trying to achieve as well as what this split could have been, were it not for the often bland playing and over-simplified guitar leads. Just as the intro starts sounding drawn-out, the rest of the instrumentation turns it into a black metal song that, while not special in any regard, continues to be an enjoyable listen. Before the sometimes uninteresting sounding atmospheric parts start to become a little too overbearing, a solid ending finishes the song. The production of the instrumentation is rather clean as one might be used to from atmospheric black metal from recent years, compared to the distorted screams, resulting in an odd contrast.

"Hand of fire" wastes potential to follow up the first track directly by an intro played too non-energetically to be engaging. Thankfully, the song quickly turns to be the reverb-y brooding despair before topping it off with a more forward-running, aggressive part. The vocal passages are more dynamic than in the first track, so despite the unnecessarily bad chugging passages it does round off the split well.