If you want to listen to some blackgaze played with all the best feelings and able to produce evocative atmospheres lashed by some roughness, the latest album of Ketoret could be a good solution. The Israeli band is relatively recently formed and, with Spontaneous Combustion, reaches their second full length after their previous self-titled release from 2020. Since the opener Havens is perceptible the melodic taste that the quartet of Jerusalem has in its ropes, proving to be able to do not regret the work of leading bands in this field as Alcest (compared to which possess a greater propensity doom/post metal) or Deafheaven. Above all, the feeling is that the sound of Ketoret has nothing built, but flows with a certain freshness and spontaneity along the first five tracks in which melodies and harshness of black matrix alternate seamlessly, with the exception of the final Tsariyakh, where emerges a doom experimentalism rather pushed but not out of place, although far from the rest of the mood of the work. Ketoret deserve the attention of those who appreciate the sound of the bands mentioned as possible references, but not only, because Spontaneous Combustion is an album full of solutions from the considerable emotional impact, which should not displease any kind of ear.

2022 – Independent