Remete – The Winter Silence (Reissue)

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From their Bandcamp page, “The second release from this new solo-project of D. Conceptualized as one long piece broken into four parts, this release contains over 20 minutes of Melancholic Black Metal.” “I” leads off the album. It begins with clean guitars and some backing mournful elements. When the main riff hits, it’s dark and powerful, but the somber tones remain. The vocals are done with two styles…the first is higher harsh utterances and the second are lower. “II” is a much shorter affair, featuring clean acoustical guitars the echo. The mood is melancholy, like endless days of soft rain.

“III” opens with a fuller sound of slow, distorted guitars and more somber tones. The melodies here build to beautiful offerings, even though the vocals are harsh and unforgiving. It grows darker with a more earnest pace after the half-way mark. “IV” begins with more clean tones and more depressive melodies. But, that grand sound comes sweeping in before too long. Majestic tones enter, as if you are witnessing the coronation of a new king, because the former one was killed in battle. It’s bittersweet.

This was a pretty decent slab of Black Metal. Though only four songs long, it mostly qualifies as an EP, rather than a long play. The harsher elements are tempered by moments of beauty. As is typical in the genre, the songs don’t really reach out and grab you with dynamism however. Seeing on how this was only the composer’s second effort, it has potential, but doesn’t quite get there just yet.

Songwriting: 6
Musicianship: 6
Memorability: 6
Production: 7