Day: September 30, 2012

In approaching this first long-distance release by Solitude Project, the first thing that struck me was the really low average age on the part of the band’s members, a fact that does not actually shine through so clearly in the music contained on this record. Mind you, some naiveté manifests itself in the course of the work, but after all, this is a trap into which far more experienced musicians fall, especially when grappling with a particular genre such as the depressive black metal with a substantial ambient component proposed by ours. This interregional combo (the band members come from different parts of our country) presents us with a work of complex accessibility, both because of the themes it deals with (Suicide Psychosis is a concept centered on the psychological drift of a woman locked up in an asylum) and because of the bare and dry sound accentuated by a rather low-fi production, as per dsbm tradition, which sometimes penalizes the more melodic passages. In spite of the all-too-secondary flaws just highlighted, Solitude Project‘s album proves to be quite fascinating, particularly for those who are not afraid to wrestle with sounds that are by no means reassuring and aimed at evoking feelings of misanthropy and abandonment. With appreciable courage, Lord Sinister and co. are not afraid to try their hand at length at ambient moments, as in the eloquently titled track Cries In The Void, which nevertheless prove functional in highlighting the existential heartbreak of the story’s protagonist. The two more articulate tracks, Suicide Psychosis and Sad Days In Solitude, are definitely well thought out as well as more steeped in disturbed atmospheres and mottled with sporadic guitar melodies. Outro, on the other hand, is an instrumental track that offers a few illusory glimmers of hope extinguished in the finale by the downpours of rain; the closing of the album, however, belies its title, with a cover of Mental Central Dialog with which Lifelovers are paid homage, in a sufficiently personal way. Overall, Suicide Psychosis proves to be an already suitably mature work, and this, even in light of the initial premise, allows us to count Solitude Project among the names to keep a close eye on in the near future.

2014 – Panzer Records