| CD REVIEW Sembler Deah |
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Band: Sembler Deah Sembler Deah are a new project by two Belgians and one Frenchmen, respectively Colin Van Eeckhout and Mathieu Vandekerckhove (both of them are/ were involved with e.g. Amenra or Kingdom), and Dehnsora (think Treha Sektori). The trio created, with their debut Kaessariah, Een Heel Leven Lang ([1]) a unique piece of Audio-Art, which stands for a mostly mystical and ominous journey through unknown and forbidden spheres of abyssal obscurity and imaginative mesmerism. [I don’t know what ‘kaessariah’ stands for, yet it fits perfectly to the fantasy-approach, and ‘een heel leven lang’ is Dutch for, literally translated, ‘a whole life long’]. The four songs (actually, ‘song’ is exaggerated, as you’ll find out) have duration of about thirty three minutes (a shame, such a shame, for clocking just over half an hour) and no, it has nothing to do, when it comes to the musical approach purely, with ‘Metal’ whatsoever. But this stuff will certainly please many fans of the darkest regions of Black and / or Funeral Doom Metal. Kaessariah … opens with "Sehikiah", which could be a creation by Dark Industrial über-meister Peter Andersson – imagine the ambient soundscapes of some of his projects like Raison d’Être amongst many others; mysterious recordings à la Prospectus I or Requiem For Abandoned Souls come to mind especially. Next ‘song’ (haha, what a lapsus), called "Troosteloos" (Dutch for desolate), goes on in the very same atmosphere. It’s a monotonous soundscape, also hypnotically Cold Meat-inspired, combined with oppressive Funeral Doom-inspired guitars (only sporadically yet of undeniable importance). "Helen" (it’s a name not that very unusual in Flanders, but I’m not sure it’s called after a girl after all) too goes on in a Cold Meat Industry-oriented sphere, even though acts like Gnaw Their Tongues, Archon Satani and Melek-Tha or projects on obscure labels like Memento Mori, CAPP or ConSouling Souls come to mind as well. And when "She Verah" seems to do include elements from, for example, Aghast, well, then I’m lost in timeless and spaceless, post-sensitive emotions completely… Remarkable: this album has been created by three individuals and not as a one-man project, and that’s rather strange - but it does not matter because Kaessariah is a devotional master-piece, probably ignorable to many, yet adored by those who prefer emptiness in its mostly-filled sense (word-struggling yet hypertensionically deep-meaning-full) above comfortable safety… An audial drug for anyone’s black-edged spirit – gimme more, soon! 95/100 Ivan Tibos. |