TOBC - Heart Of Darkness
This one-man Polish outfit started creating in 2008. The man behind the outfit, Dominicus, draws his inspiration from everyday life. Originally he worked within a variety of genres, he has now decided to focus on black metal, being influenced by Burzum and Darkthrone, to create music that’s dark and aggressive yet still atmospheric.
So, in a sense, atmospheric death metal.
This is his first full self-release and is promoted and sold primarily through MySpace, showing the effect that the internet has had on the world. But for him, as a solo outfit, this just promotes him as a singular form, in control of all elements, from producing and promoting to creating.
Dominicus takes on not only all instrumental but the vocals. The instrumentals are primarily guitar and drums, and work to a hypnotic beat that is interrupted by the dark, near scream of a lyric. He mainly relies on the music to propel the songs forward, with sparse use of lyrics, and this, for some of the songs, especially Through The Frozen Realm, works superbly. It allows the near-hypnotic repetition to take on its own character, with the vocals occasionally dropping in to break it down.
The songs vary in length from seven and a half minutes to a staggering 25 minutes for Eternal Darkness. This change in length doesn’t really bring or lose anything from the music, but the repetition within in each track can be a little boring at times. Within each track the vocals vary slightly in pitch and tone, so they are either more screamo or growly dependant on the track. The repetition is really hypnotic at times, and I still don’t know if this is good or bad, but the songs are different from each other in different ways, making the change of track discernible.
Eternal Darkness, the 25 minute song, takes on its own persona as soon as it begins. The slightly echoey, more electronica opening makes it stand out from the others with its ethereal and otherworldly sounds. It feels more like a dream than a song at times. This differentiation makes this atmospheric song feel more like symphonic or melodic metal rather than death metal, and this is a welcome change. After about ten minutes, however, this instrumental tracks starts to get more than a little boring, which isn’t that much of a surprise. By shortening the length of this track it would have made it better and fitted in with the album more neatly.
So, in a sense, atmospheric death metal.
This is his first full self-release and is promoted and sold primarily through MySpace, showing the effect that the internet has had on the world. But for him, as a solo outfit, this just promotes him as a singular form, in control of all elements, from producing and promoting to creating.
Dominicus takes on not only all instrumental but the vocals. The instrumentals are primarily guitar and drums, and work to a hypnotic beat that is interrupted by the dark, near scream of a lyric. He mainly relies on the music to propel the songs forward, with sparse use of lyrics, and this, for some of the songs, especially Through The Frozen Realm, works superbly. It allows the near-hypnotic repetition to take on its own character, with the vocals occasionally dropping in to break it down.
The songs vary in length from seven and a half minutes to a staggering 25 minutes for Eternal Darkness. This change in length doesn’t really bring or lose anything from the music, but the repetition within in each track can be a little boring at times. Within each track the vocals vary slightly in pitch and tone, so they are either more screamo or growly dependant on the track. The repetition is really hypnotic at times, and I still don’t know if this is good or bad, but the songs are different from each other in different ways, making the change of track discernible.
Eternal Darkness, the 25 minute song, takes on its own persona as soon as it begins. The slightly echoey, more electronica opening makes it stand out from the others with its ethereal and otherworldly sounds. It feels more like a dream than a song at times. This differentiation makes this atmospheric song feel more like symphonic or melodic metal rather than death metal, and this is a welcome change. After about ten minutes, however, this instrumental tracks starts to get more than a little boring, which isn’t that much of a surprise. By shortening the length of this track it would have made it better and fitted in with the album more neatly.
- Through The Frozen Realm
- Visions
- Heart Of Darkness
- Nightfall
- Chains To Eternity
- Eternal Darkness
- Fade
