Unreqvited ; "Disquiet"

Ok, the debut album from this black gaze band/ Lets see how long they can go without sounding like Deafheaven. Before you know you are on the third song. The post -rock element is a bigger deal here than the black metal. When they black metal comes it's in the sonic blur of blasting. While Deafheaven was not the first band to dip their toes in these waters, the way the static vocals sit in the mix almost holding their ground as the bands only metal elements bears a similar dynamic. The vocals are more anguished and depressive than what Deafheaven does. The keyboards also help to separate them from the bandwagon. Though sometimes make them indulgent and clutter up the album with atmospheric interludes.

The melody to "Maydena" is pretty thoughtful. The vocals when they do break the surface come out in the mix for so it doesn't sound like the are as far back behind the water fall of guitar they are trying to howl out from behind. The piano melodies also help give them some more identity. They hit more of a sonic sweet spot with this song, where they needed to be earlier in the album. Not that what they were doing previously was bad it was just not as lush or dynamic, which if you are a regular reader of this blog then you know those are two qualities I ask for from music.It is easy for these guys to lose their way and get consumed in the flowery piano parts, so what is the band's strength can also be their weakness if not balanced out. They take the flowers to more of an extreme on "Death" which closes out the album, while it sounds really huge when the guitars come back to add a more metal dyanmic it also takes them five minutes to get to that part. The bulk of this sounds sounds more like something from a movie soundtrack.

These guys do have a strong sense of dynamics I think on future album's it will be about finding the unhappy medium that is more metal, but retains the more symphonic side to what they do. So this si more like taking a symphonic black metal band and combining it with a atmospheric black metal band and then having them write the sound track to a movie. I'll give this an 8, as they do hit on some powerful moments and succeed at what they do , though they haven't convinced me they are a full blown metal band it sound like just a color they like to dabble in.