Resonance - Duir - Cvinger
- Sparky
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
Duir- Catarsi 7.5 /10
The Second album from the faceless collective that is Italy’s Duir, Catarsi is an ambitious WWI concept record exploring the psychological despair of a soldier, the result is desolate and haunting expressed through raw folk infused black metal.
From the opener of Manifesto and its grim settings the hurdy gurdy and guitar stand at equal footing, and the result is a sound that is recognizable yet also unique, it is a vast cinematic infused style that captures the history and sense of oncoming dread within the album. The tremolo riffing is merciless throughout creating a confrontational tone that suits the militarised patterns. The darkness of the black metal against the bright timbre of the traditional creates an originality intensity best
represented by Di nessuno (Of no one) and the lengthy multifaceted Del Giorno (Of the Day). Its rawness and intensity are reflected through the sheer ferocity of the Duir’s style.
Catarsi is a visceral inescapable album that seamlessly merges its many ideas whilst staying true to the ethos of uncompromising black metal. Its authenticity is assured with the Italian language vocals and is anomaly in the purest sense that it has no restraint in delivering its emotional catharsis that is part release, part recurring nightmare.
Cvinger- Rites Of Flesh 8/10
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Hailing from Slovenia Cvinger is not just an act that indulges in the dark arts. Their music reeks of it, as essential and intrinsic to the extreme music that celebrates it. Their fourth album Rites Of Flesh is an album that explores themes of inner transformation and sacrifice—not physical, but spiritual—through meditation, spiritual visualization and extreme fasting and the result is an experience that combines both the spiritual with the mayhem of Back/Death metal.
From its ominous, Intro, there’s an atmosphere that is present within Cvinger’s music that reveals itself over the nine rites within, from the frenetic two/four and its double bass fury that is Rite 1 ‘’The Temple of Nine Gates’ both the sacred and the profane are dealt with an authenticity and originality that makes this album unique. From epic compositions to brief interludes Rites of flesh is an album best viewed as a complete body of work. The absolute fury of Rite III - Mass Incineration for the Divine Resurrection, is tempered by the visually creative instrumental Rite VI - The Sleep of the Sinister. There is something hypnotic lurking in the darkness that is Rite IX and its clever use of clean and harsh vocals its riff predatory and pace an excellent demonstration of sheer heavy power.
Rites Of Flesh is a visceral immersive experience that haunts with its clean choral inspired passages that highlights its occult themes and adds a texture and nuance to the black metal and chaotic tremolo riffing. The result is a genuinely haunting enlightening experience.