#30-Inside the darkness

Chovu / The Witch - Uchawi (split).
Two very different Black Metal
bands across the waters. Chovu
from Keyna and The Witch from
Colombia. Both great bands
to be
fair. Chovu
I’m especially
interested in
because they
write songs
about different
things
like African
mythology. The
Witch are
more Doomy and
a bit creepy.
Even though
it’s not DSBM,
I think DSBM
fans should
definitely
check this
out. This
album actually
covers
a few
different
areas of Black
Metal. Chovu’s
‘Kithitu Walk’
is such a great song. Both of these
bands are usually very different,
but on this album, they don’t seem
to be. Chovu seem to have chosen
some of their slower songs. Some of
this is so beautiful, some is so perfect,
some is just plain intriguing.
If you’re one of those people who just
likes Norwegian bands, then it’s your
loss as far as I’m concerned. This is a
good chance to introduce yourself to two
great bands.
Narbeleth - A Pale Crown.
A bestial entity roaming the lands of Spain
called “Narbeleth” made an LP release
quite significant for the modern black metal
world called “A Pale Crown”. Amidst the two
different fronts regarding the “third wave
of black metal”, one side
featuring pure rawness and
the other side expressing the
experimental part of the
third wave; this release is a
refreshment from the two
conflicting sides of the third
wave.
This release features old
school black metal with
all its beauty and grotesque
elements.
The album starts with a
boom, directly attacking
the listener with a fast
blast beat and a melodic
riff that resembles the old
wind of Swedish bands from
the 90s. It continues with
aggressive riffs and drums,
occasionally changing beats
but the structure of the song
is well recognized; melodic
to aggressive and so forth.
We go on to the second song which is the selftitled
song. The song gave me a déjà vu for a
moment, as if I heard this before and I figured
out that this sound can be easily compared to
the North American band “Stormkeep” and it
brought me a nice wave of nostalgia from
the day I first heard that amazing band. The
whole song, “A Pale Crown”, is a journey of its
own with amazing vocals and choir like
segments and melancholic riffs that really fit the
name of the song.
I have to especially mention the song “On The Sight
of Dusk”, a song that really blew my mind. Melodic,
yet aggressive; Melancholic and cold, yet a spirit
raising hymn, its black metal in its true form. The
acoustic transition is a charming moment before
a double pedal blast takes over aggressively and
finishing with a mid-tempo thrashy riff.
There are obvious references that early Immortal
was one of their main inspirations, which is a
superb choice of sound and it really shows that
they took up this task of producing a good sound
for their album. When it comes to production,
I can’t find any big errors production wise; the
136 137
Band’s links: https://www.facebook.com/Chovuband https://www.facebook.com/The-Witch-108091774126489 https://mastersofkaos.bandcamp.com Band’s link: https://www.facebook.com/Narbeleth.BlackMetal https://narbeleth.bandcamp.com/album/a-pale-crown https://www.instagram.com/narbeleth_official
sound is amazing, it fits the atmosphere of
the riffs, drums, vocals and song structure
perfectly and is a great example of a good
production and master.
If I had to find a flaw to this album it would
be the drum dynamics which in
my opinion isn’t a
big problem but should be
brought up. Most of their
songs feature semi-monotone
drum tracks with the same
beat structures throughout
all the songs which
is a quality more found in
raw black metal and not in
this type of black metal
featuring everything I already
talked about. Also, I expected
more vocal range throughout
the album but that was
just my expectation when
I was getting into the
album but the vocalist did
his job here and showed
us the old school sound of
vocals.
In conclusion, this
is one AMAZING
album worth listening. I
enjoyed every moment of
this album and it holds everything what black
metal should have, a pure masterpiece by
this band I have heard of for the first time
with this album but I will make sure
I analyze their work thoroughly. I hope
the band goes on with this flame it showed
us with this magnum opus and I hope for the
best for them!
Rating: 9/10