Striborg – Perceiving The World With Hate

I have listened to every Striborg album. In fact, I have written each review on Sin Nanna that has been published here @ BRUTALISM. I AM a fan. The album reviewed here, Perceiving the World with Hate, is his strangest. Not in a weird way, but in its emphasis on the ethereal and the atmospheric. Even the opening guitars as lightly picked and distorted over the slow drums – a moment that makes me think more of a lighter Sunn O))) than depressive black metal per se – strikes my ears as stealthy move into a woods overrun by ghosts. I mean it is one thing for Sin Nanna to play the character of a lone gunner in the dark wilderness. But it is another thing to play sounds that portray wasted souls as strewn about that same landscape. But it is the impression I get from this latest Striborg offering.

Even the second track, “Trails Of Desolation,” sounds structurally like normal black metal – drums, simple bass riffs, distorted and light growling vocals. But the tempo is so slow it reminds me more like melancholy Merzbow performing depression for an audience. And even as the tempo picks up and the bass riff is emphasized louder in the mix, the over all effect increases in melancholia. Brilliant. I like that Striborg can change it up as the Sin Nanna project hurls toward its goals. May he keep the sword sharp for the fray.