À RÉPIT / SKUGGOR – Requiems To The Moon

vote
7.5

• Bands:
  À RÉPIT SKUGGOR
• Duration: 00:44:56
• Available from: 11/15/2024
• Label:

• Naturmacht Productions

The influence that the territorial and naturalistic context has always had on the imagination and work of artists dedicated to black metal has been known since the dawn of the genre. Consolidated in particular with the advent of the Scandinavian bands of the so-called 'second wave' and from there developed to the point of carving out its own subgenre within the 'mare monsrum' of atmospheric black metal, the union between nature and black metal finds a new celebration in this “Requiems To The Moon”, a split released on the Natumacht Productions label, which involves the locals À Répit and the Swedish one-man band Skuggor.
The two groups equally divide the available space by presenting three songs each, with Skuggor reserving the honor and burden of opening the dance with the very dark “As Mist Seeps In”, immediately putting their own songs on the plate. peculiar characteristics, i.e. dense and icy riffing innervated by careful and enveloping keyboard arrangements, all set on slow and dilated tempos, in pure 'atmospheric' style.
The good M, mastermind of the project (and active in another myriad of bands, including Forlorn Citadel and Autumn's Dawn), knows well how to evoke the cold of the dark nocturnal landscapes of his land, confirming this also with the subsequent “Moonlight Gazing ” and “Bleak I” the good things that have already been heard in the two full-lengths published to date under the name Skuggor, thanks to a style that is both sparse in the basic ingredients and rich in the final result, with songs expertly studied and capable of immediately involving the listener in the atmospheres they evoke. Echoes of Burzum and Evilfeast can undoubtedly be seen in the plots, but the Skuggors definitely know how to put their own spin on it.
The three songs proposed by À Répit appear to be less immediate and more devoted to experimentation – without in any way renouncing, where necessary, the stylistic coordinates typical of the genre to which they belong, and this is not surprising: since the publication of the first full-length length, “Magna Leggenda”, which took place in 2017, the creature of Skarn and Gypaetus has always stood out for its desire to always look for new colors to add to its own sound palette, in order to render the multifaceted design of one's artistic imagination in an increasingly detailed and vivid way.
This yearning is particularly evident in the long and complex “Veneration”: enriched by the presence of guests Lunaris (ex Opera IX and Skoll) on keyboards and D. Albireon (Albireon) on acoustic guitars and choirs, the composition unfolds from initial singer-songwriter and neo-folk hints declined in an 'alpine' style (the inevitable trademark of À Répit) to the next thickening of the sound which, in a continuous crescendo, then lands in black metal territories without, however, the song ever losing its 'mountain song in an extreme version' inspiration which characterizes its essence; a decidedly daring piece, but at the same time extremely successful and evocative, which together with the more pressing “Passaggio” and the epic “Forma Mentis” creates a winning triptych, a rather exhaustive photograph of the current 'state of the art' of the À Répit project and its possible future developments.
In conclusion, what we have in our hands is an excellent split, which could find favor with fans of both atmospheric black metal and old-school black metal thanks to a rough and glacial approach from both bands involved which has nothing to do with the excessively 'bucolic' tendencies of the genre, but which at the same time could be particularly appreciated by the more astute listeners, constantly looking for that something 'extra' in terms of personality and experimentation that can make the difference .
In fact, Skuggor and À Répit have managed to convey into this split, despite their own well-marked peculiarities, an underlying coherence that makes the listening experience not only satisfying, but also very consistent.