If you follow the releases on this French label then you know it has garnered a reputation for unveiling top-quality black metal over the last decade and none more so than Lunar Tombfields with a debut of scintillating atmospheric black metal. As a duo the band has taken their name from the debut release by Venenum and subsequently created quite possibly one of the best albums in atmospheric black metal you’ll hear this year.
With four tracks on offer, most of which span the ten-minute barrier, you are given the opportunity to immerse yourself in the sonic universe of Lunar Tombfields, which I did. I couldn’t help but just sit back and absorb this album, every song is breathtakingly beautiful yet crafted with inherent hostility. ‘The Ancestral Conjuration’ starts the album where background noises are blended with a female vocal, creating a truly different opening before the blackened assault manifests, though not essentially with obliterating speed, preferring a mid-tempo to produce a catchy drive. I absolutely love the drum sound on this album performed by Äzh, the organic sound and nature really enhance this album. At times I was reminded of their compatriots Regarde Les Hommes Tomber and Blut Aus Nord, due to the way the duo texturizes all their songs with subtlety and passion.
‘As The Spirit Wanes, The Form Appears’ continues the album brilliantly flooding in with a deluge of multifaceted riffing and gargantuan atmosphere. Again, the drum work augments how this album sounds overall, their complexity may not be the highest you’ve ever heard but the tone is smooth and cohesive as the epic nature of the track is exemplified by its surging pace. With isolated guitar work ‘A Dialogue With The Wounded Stars’ continues to add to this albums colossal construction as here I felt the band was similar to the UK’s The Wolf Garden who I picked up on last year. Layering the guitar wondrously enables the song to evolve magnificently as a cool guitar hook is embedded that grips your attention shrouded by their majestic hostility. When the band adds the blast beats, it is precisely situated, ensuring maximum impact right before the abyssal drop in tempo to produce spacey phase I appreciated. The serene melody that filters in just adds to the theatre of the song, dramatic poise combined with purposeful riffing and palpable emotion.
Closing the release is the immense ‘Drowning In The Wake Of Dreams’, a tune stacked with melancholy but tempered with blasting sorties as the mingling of emotive hooks intensify what the song offers. With tons of variation the song swarms with ideas as a doom like sequence ensues at one point. The song is less violent than the other three to some degree, but no less engaging as its silken atmosphere draws you in as the song fades serenely to its climax.
A breath-taking debut album by Lunar Tombfields, one you will listen to constantly with its evolving tracks possessing that intrinsic ability to completely transfix you.
(9.5/10 Martin Harris)
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