REVIEW: DISMAL - EMBRACE OF THE BLACK CLOUDS

 

DISMAL - EMBRACE OF THE BLACK CLOUDS (Independent, 2000)

Produced by Dismal & Gernot Huber

Recorded at A& M Studios. Vienna

Tracks: 1- Intro, 2- Embrace of the Black Clouds, 3- Path To Failure, 4- For Those of the Darken Field, 5- The three towers of Mighty and Wisdom, 6- Frozen Flame, 7-...Towards Emptiness, 8- The Chamber of Emptiness, 9- Battlefield Ashes

A clean guitar intro with some melodies and an interesting bass part takes us to the world of Dismal. This is a world of some sort of death metal (I am writing this because of the vocals and some guitar riffs) that has a lot of guitar that sound really heavy metal or hard rock (but with the crushing sound that death metal guitars have): an example of this is the opening track "Embrace of the Black Clouds". There are certain elements that use bands like Paradise Lost or My Dying Bride, for example, like the melodic guitar lines played over extremely heavy guitar riffs. One thing that I like of Dismal´s music is that they use a lot of riffs and melodies within the same song and that is one point that makes their music more interesting for me. I would like them to mix the snare drum louder to make the riffs and patterns sound more effective. This guys deserve a better sound because their music is original and really well done. Favorite tracks: "Path To Failure", "Frozen Flame" and "The Chamber of Emptiness"