Here is a beautiful disc of depressive black metal from Costa Rica: until some time ago such an incipit would have aroused a certain surprise but, today, it is well established that certain drives of the human soul have no limits of time and place nor, above all, of expression. In fact, the only Costa Rican in the trio is the young J.F., guitarist and vocalist who is assisted by the Mexican Nergot and the Italian Kjiel, a prominent figure in the Italian dsbm scene, here represented also by HK, who takes care of the drumming on the album. What makes the difference in this genre, given the same desire by the authors to represent states of alienation from reality preparatory to suicidal or self-harming behavior, is the ability of individual musicians to make credible and at the same time usable their expressive solutions. In Black Whispers both aspects are proposed at their best, so that the restlessness that exudes from Shades Of Bleakness is effectively conveyed to the listener with a relatively short disc (four tracks plus intro) and sounds rather uniform but that have in common very effective melodic lines and, above all, able to communicate clearly all the sense of unease. A small flaw can be found in the canonical desperate scream that, being a bit flat, sometimes turns out to be almost a disturbing element if inserted in a musical environment often with melodic traits, however dark; it’s also true, however, that this aspect is an integral part of a genre that, by its nature, should neither reassure nor console, so those who appreciate all this will not be unwelcome more than that. A slight imperfection that, however, does not invalidate what turns out to be one of the best depressive black metal albums heard in recent times and, as mentioned in the introduction, do not be surprised that the author of all this comes from Costa Rica: music is something universal, impossible to delimit by erecting walls or electrified nets.

2015 – Symbol of Domination Prod. / Outer Line / Prison Tatt Records