Month: December 2014

After the successful split with Aphonic Threnody we find Frowning, the solo project of the German musician Val Atra Niteris, struggling with the first test on long distance. After obtaining a prestigious deal with what is now the mother house of European doom, the Russian label Solitude Productions, and having tested the response of fans with the release in cohabitation with the English band author of the recent When Death Comes, there were all the conditions favorable for this first work could prove to be a new important piece in the funeral field. Well, we can say with certainty that the premises have been abundantly maintained, since Funeral Impressions proves to be a test of great quality thickness in which Val unleashes an hour of sounds painful but enriched by a melodic connotation always in evidence. If the instrumental track Day In Black is a wonderful episode as partially atypical, during which the German musician exhibits its valuable skills as a guitarist, the rest of the work winds on the rhythms slowed down to the extreme that the genre requires, collecting various influences, such as Mournful Congregation and Evoken among those declared, as well as Ea and Eye Of Solitude with regard to the search for melody within scores swollen with a melancholic oppression. Emblematic in this sense a song like Sleep Eternally, which shines for a central part really creepy, with a guitar that expresses an almost excruciating pain in its beautiful melodic development. In fact, the work takes further height from this song until its conclusion, with the longer and equally valid Murdered By Grief and A Way Into Relief, highlighting a pleasant progression that allows the listener to keep the attention always alive. Frowning confirms itself as another name to count on in the years to come: the creature of Val Atra Niteris doesn’t miss any of the peculiarities that make funeral doom one of the most effective artistic representations of pain and anguish destined to grip, sooner or later, every human being.

2014 – Solitude Productions 2018 – GS Productions