BRISEN – Soul Of Shade

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7.0

• Bands:
  BRISEN
• Duration: 00:28:33
• Available from: 01/23/2025

That of the Italians Brisen is indeed a sudden return, but also an ambitious and artistically complex one. For those who are not aware of the history of the Roman group, we are talking about a black metal band that at the time got noticed with the self-produced demo “Holocaust Sky” and the subsequent debut “Shade Of Soul”. Our band then re-emerged again in 2009 with an EP and – although it is clear that their activity is more episodic than anything else – it seems that the time has not yet come for Brisen to hang up their instruments.

If in “Madre Tenebra” the keyboards and horror soundtrack moments stood out in several places, the call of electronics must still be strong for us, given that “Soul Of Shade” starts right from there: we are in fact faced with a single piece of almost half an hour, set on dark ambient, on some more power electronics parts and on a final, unexpected, black metal outburst. It's clearly a difficult product to enjoy, especially if you want to approach Brisen by thinking of them in their more classically black metal identity.
However, the structure of the suite itself comes to our aid, given that for the first few minutes it introduces voices, some moments that are almost entirely noise, some loops and in general a cold and industrial dark ambient: we can in fact say that the material we are talking about has also been defined, in recent years, as 'hauntology', while for those who are a few years older it remains the daughter of the legendary Cold Meat Industry and creatures like In Slaughter Natives, to name just one. In both cases, we are talking about cold, ghostly ambient electronic music linked to feelings of discomfort and – why not? – fear.
After the first minutes, the industrial hints decrease to be reduced to an almost completely ambient, more spatial part, and here we can mention the Cold Spring, Cyclic Law and Cryo Chamber catalogues: this second is the longest part, somewhat more unstructured and perhaps the most difficult to deal with for those not accustomed to the genre. Be careful though: in the last minutes a more classically black metal outburst emerges – supported however by synths – which concludes the experience in a very pleasant way.

From the title that recalls their debut, Brisen feel this new chapter as the foundation of their musical identity and in this we feel like supporting them, because we feel spiritual continuity of intent; musically, “Soul Of Shade” is a well-structured and well-finished work from a sound point of view (which, in the CD version, on systems of a certain caliber should really give satisfaction to the most audiophiles).
Some final considerations: if we think about what Brisen are proposing in 2026 we are in fact talking about a micro-sector of the market linked to carefully curated editions but very limited in numbers (sometimes only on vinyl and produced by specific labels), if we want quite disconnected from the traditional underground black metal, so let's hope that the work receives as much attention as possible.
Finally, we only feel like making a criticism of the artwork, which in our opinion is too essential compared to the sound quality of the product.
For the bravest, a product to try, for those accustomed to this type of sound something not shocking but well thought out and structured.