Ten years ago this band released a demo nobody ever saw, then disappeared. Now he is back claiming a 13 year history with Requiem. Apparently this is no longer an NS band.
It all starts with an atmospheric intro called “Intro”. “Cleansed” allows you to focus on instrumentation or quite awhile before the vocals kick in, which do not overpower. There are minimal vocal lines throughout the album but especially on this song. The vocals are also buried in guitar fuzz, giving them an ethereal quality. The emphasis is on atmospherics created on guitar. The drums are minimal and firmly in the background. The guitars have a swirling, enveloping quality like early morning spring fog. Cleaner guitar lines are trying to weave their way through the haze and every once in a while you catch a glimpse of the icy snow pack. On “Enigma” the drums pick up the pace a bit, becoming slightly forceful, though the soundscapes are still the overarching energy of the song. Vocals are still mostly absent.
Instead of harsh, this album is more aptly called haunting, in a way quite beautiful. “The Corpse In The Forest” has more prominent keys but the dynamic is unchanged. “Seven Days to Dead” says it is an instrumental, the whole album might as well be, and the vocals do not come across as words but as additional instrumentation. On this song the fuzz is gone, it is very simple and repetitive until the end when a new passage comes up like a wave and then recedes. The album could easily have ended three songs before the outro and no impact would have been lost. It overstays its welcome, but if I had suspended listening I would have missed “Beggars Belief” which is a bit more shrill, and “Want” which has a more prominent lead guitar but still no melody in the traditional sense.
Are we going to get another release 12 years down the pike to maintain the air of mystery or is this yet another band soon to be lost to the ages. This is really nothing to get all that excited about but if you are lamenting the demise of Leviathan why not give him a shot. I Shalt Become are one of legion vying to fill the void. All you need to do is pop Leviathan Silhouette in Splinters on the turntable to instantly hear all the nuances missing here. The rare album blows you away, “never heard anything like that before, “ more commonly it is pure crap. This is just bah humbug, not bad at all, just… I wish it was better but it is not promising either.
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I just want to say congratulations on August 5th review of I Shalt Become. I also have been “looking into” the authenticity of this demo and that the band has been around since 1996 or so and can’t find much of anything really proving this.
Honestly, I think its a bunch of bullshit that people just happened to believe because they read it on online. I mean some websites show the f’in demo as 1996 Moribund, or that Moribund held onto this since 1996. When I questioned Moribund about this they could only refer me to anus.com. I contacted them, and despite them showing Moribund 1996, they claim it’s not Moribund and that they used a blurry picture of the 2006 “rerelease” by Moribund so that “people would recognize it”.
I sent another question then asking them to verify the “demo” they apparently did review and so far have no reply. When I sent this information to Moribund they still hadn’t returned message to me. I find this all to be a real crock of shit, and it basically reminds me of the allegations surrounding Nargaroth and his supposed mid 90’s demos (that of course were self financed and really nobody had heard of until around 2000 or later). I think its a shame if this is a sham getting perpetrated on black metal fans… I mean, i’ve been a fan since 1997/8 abouts when I started buying the Blackened Compilations… and there sure as fuck was never any mention of “I SHALT BECOME” until the last couple years or so.
Just wanted to share this with you and thank you for putting in some honest information at the beginning of your review.
on Oct 23rd, 2008 at 12:20