Voin Grim - Immerse Into Nocturnal Splendour
I haven’t heard Black Metal like this in a while. At one point, almost every Black Metal band had a keyboardist and they all played in a style similar to Emperor or Dimmu Borgir. Now, everyone wants to sound like Darkthrone. I wouldn’t call this Symphonic Black Metal because the keyboard structures aren’t all that complicated, and while they do play a significant role in Voin Grim’s sound, they are there primarily to lend atmosphere. Musically, this is album has a bit of both Emperor and Darkthrone on it. The guitar playing is similar to old Darkthrone or Mayhem (Deathcrush era) in style. The guitar parts are a bit hard to make out, though. The keyboards are dominant here, so when they come in, the guitars get buried. And I mean completely buried. When the keyboards are going, the guitars literally become inaudible. All you hear are keyboards and drums. This brings us to the second thing that’s wrong with this album’s production. It sounds muffled. It’s like listening to a record from the other side of a wall or a closed door. You can make everything out to some extent, but it’s as if the sound is being absorbed or diffused. The music on Immerse Into Nocturnal Splendour is pretty good, but could seriously benefit from a good studio engineer. Since this is a self-released album and there is only one member in this band (Vojfrost, who plays everything), maybe money was an issue. Personally, I would have rather seen Voin Grim release an EP with two or three really well-played songs that have great sound, than a full-length album that sounds like shit. This doesn’t sound like complete shit, but the poor production calls attention to itself. Maybe someone will give Voin Grim a recording budget and we’ll be able to hear what this band is really capable of.
(7) Comment(s)
Page 1 of 1 pages
dracul weywoden said:
Wow, this is the worst review ever, i mean the author doesnt know a shit in black metal.. talking about poor production? if you think black metal should sound “high produced” and “well played” then just quit reviewing black metal releases.
Ychoril said:
Yes, I know nothing about Black Metal. I’ve only been listening to it since Mercyful Fate, Venom and Bathory were releasing their first albums. Frankly, I’ve forgotten more about Black Metal than most kids in the scene today will ever know. The idea that all Black Metal must sound like unlistenable shit played by a gang of chimpanzees given musical instruments is idiotic. It’s an idea that is spread by a bunch of self-centered asshole kids who want “Black Metal” to be their own little secret cult phenomenon. All this ideology creates is a stagnant scene that has five fans and no new ideas. Even bands like Beherit or Bestial Summoning had fairly good sound on their albums and while it was raw, you could still hear what they were playing. Having the keyboards and the drums bury everything defeats the purpose of having vocals and guitars. Why bother having lyrics if nobody even hears you? Why bother writing riffs if nobody hears them? I’m not expecting awesome sound but I at least want to hear what a band is trying to do.
dracul weywoden said:
For the demo its sounds good enough, because its a demo compilation, maby you finally should quit downloading albums for free on the web sites in the most poor quality.. and even though listen to the official sources preview.. this compilation was remastered and posted on the official site a long time ago, on the high volume with the headphones it sounds very good.. instruments create the whole sound, maby the guitars not that loud but they definitely there (at least on the remastered version). And well, I heard a lot of “atmospheric black metal” projects like (basarabian hills, lustre etc)where you really cant hear the guitars for shit, i mean its just not in the mix, just somewhere really far, its really buried by keys and drums - well i think these bands suck, Listen to the “Grim and Frostbitten Kingdoms” by immortal where the drums fucking cracking everything, but people still love it, and btw nobody wants to read such “ridiculously strict” reviews, so i guess this one was a waste of time.
admin said:
dracul weywoden> Bands, record labels and their PR companies send us music to review. Or we buy it. That’s how we get everything.
It’s humorous that you call Ychoril’s review “a waste of time” and say that nobody wants to read such reviews, but you obviously DID read it and have spent quite some time thinking about it.
OnlyInDeath said:
I hate wasting my time. That’s why I only read record reviews that completely agree with and reinforce opinions that I already hold.
dracul weywoden said:
It was reviewed before it was released officially on CD.
admin said:
dracul weywoden> That’s a very common practice. Back in the days when record labels and bands sent physical media to be reviewed, sometimes we’d get an album two or three months before its official release date.
But that didn’t happen this time. The release date for this album (or demo compilation, or whatever it is) was, according to the band’s bandcamp.com page, January 24th, 2013. This review was posted on March 19, 2013. That’s nearly two months later.
Page 1 of 1 pages