This is a release with music that is harsh and raw - somber and beautiful in its minute details and in its surging swells of blackened music.
To experience depression either oneself or in someone close to you is extremely hard. But depression, sadness, grief, and the like have always inspired sublime art and music. The anonymous one-artist musical project ISLEPTONTTHEMOON has over the years refined the art of taking Depressive Black Metal and fusing it with Blackgaze, Dark Ambient, and Post-Rock, and now releases yet another astonishing album that carries you through a 35-minute emotional journey.
While their previous releases have been self-released, ISLEPTONTTHEMOON has now found its home in the roster of Bindrune Records. A perfect fit if one looks at Bindrune’s impressive roster of blackened atmospheric music where this new release fits right in.
The texture on this album is comprised of complex layers when it swells the most. It brings along engaging crescendos spreading out enchanting musical themes. In these surges of music, the screaming vocals are immersed deep within the layers and it somewhat reminds me of another one-artist-project, My Purest Heart for You, especially in their song ”Alone” where harsh music and vocals are contrasted with sampling the beauty of Mahlers´s “Adagio” from his 5th Symphony. Another feat of ISLEPTONTTHEMOON´s new album is the somber and quiet parts with acoustic guitars, piano, and fleeting vocals reminiscent of the way Julee Cruise sang. And yet in other parts, I hear a hint of Alcest, intended or not - but it is after all Blackgaze-induced music so that might only be natural.
All these musings aside, this release is fully capable of speaking for itself of course. As it does right from the start of the first song “Safety”, luring you towards it with somber synths set in the mood of a symphony orchestra accompanied by strumming acoustic guitar as a separate synth-line comes up forming a pleasant musical theme. Soft vocals appear in the floating music rhythm instruments form a rhythmic pattern, but hold back as synths pan out with droplets from the piano melting together surrounding the momentaneous, fragile vocals. The music begins to tighten and swell with many layers and the warm vocals turn into Black Metal screams merging with the surge of the oncoming Atmospheric Black Metal sonics with heavy drum beats that dive forward into blast drive at the same time as the music surges and flows around the beats. Keyboard droplets create glimmers of light as the song turns into Blackgaze surging forward with layers immersing the screaming vocals before it simmers down with reflective sound effects.
The next song ”Dimming Light” is driven by sound effects and drums in the start and then surges into wide-reaching Blackgaze immersing the screaming and desperate vocals. With the song title in mind, it is like the whole scope of the music of the song, or for the hole album for that matter, is screaming ”Rage, rage against the dying of the light!”. The music pans out, changes rhythmic patterns flows forward pushed by blast drums that suddenly change their pattern and let the music spread out wide and free. It is intense and immaculately orchestrated to give a full Blackgaze effect before it all simmers down with dark droplets among indistinct voices.
”Maybe I Don’t Know It Yet, But Good Things Are Coming Soon” is a song that works like the slow paced movement of a kaleidoscopic symphony. It opens with music that spreads like a sunrise over a desolate landscape with strumming guitars and floating lean vocals. There is the sound of a wavey cello, soft bass, and somber, embracing sounds. The soothing vocals sing indistinct words in an ever-developing captivating melodic theme. The voice turns into a meditative whisper embedded in floating Ambient. Emerging drums lift the musical scope to a wonderful blackened crescendo full of captivating melodies fighting for the listener’s attention driven forward by steady drumming until everything fades away with what sounds like an accordion.
While the previous song also had a hint of Dream Pop in its floating “glory”, the next three songs swell and burst with yearning crescendos of Blackened Atmospheric music mixed with Blackgaze and Post-Rock. After the subdued acoustic opening of ”I Belong To The Void” a screeching, fuzzy guitar melts all the musical elements into Blackgaze with soaring screams and sounds. The flow is unhurried and lets you enjoy the many layers of the music, finding new patterns in the textures that create the whole musical mural. It is utterly engaging with an impressive orchestration that takes care of the small details.
In these modern times when the technology of the instruments has developed so much and given creative musicians a lot of tools at their disposal it is always amazing how musicians like ISLEPTONTTHEMOON use it to great effect while at the same time restraining themselves. To be able to create the sonics, to convey the musical ideas, they fill the harsh Black Metal dense guitar-based music with symphonic sounds, choir voices, piano, and accordion sounds and as such have a whole new register for their creative outlet that did not exist twenty years ago. And in addition, using the synths to further underline the beautiful yearning found in this kaleidoscopic music.
The two last songs ”Like Dying” and ”Keep Hidden” take the lead from the previous song and mix tumultuous music with panning arpeggios and soaring synths bestowing effective droplets of light using piano keys. Sometimes the music cools down to lift the floating vocals immersed in the sounds of the synths and the piano, adding cello strings. ”Keep Hidden” has a muted opening with a melancholic piano accompanied by the sounds of many cellos giving the impression of listening to floating, helpful vocals being in a dimly lit room filled with beautifully sad sounds from cellos, synths, and the piano, giving the sense of a soft blowing wind. The music and sounds swirl around the echoing vocals as the keys keep a slow pace with the occasional hints of light piano. It is reflective, it is meditative - contrasting the sometimes desperate blackened harshness on the other songs. The music undulates cheerlessly as it is slowly fading away with instruments disappearing one by one until only strings are left fading out in dissonance and static sounds.
