Algol / Shroud Of Despondency – Whispers From An Empty Room (2004)

Originally wrote & published on August 5th, 2004

I’ve always been a fan of split CDs, compilations, and such. They are a nice way to introduce yourself to bands you’ve never heard before and in the case of Algol and Shroud of Despondency they fit that category perfectly.

So up to bat first are Algol and American black metal band with a nice melodic, atmospheric, and a slight electronic touch to their music. Although I won't pigeonhole them too much as they like to call their music ‘Dark Vinlandic Art.’ Algol was formed in Pennsylvania, USA by the then only sixteen-year-old Dalkiel and nineteen year old Sarnath back in 1998. After a few demos, the band recorded their debut in 2000. Since then the bands had some line-up issues, but luckily they’ve now established a strong line up for live shows and their new album is in the process of being recorded.

The songs that really stand out the most are ‘Numbing dreams with sad purple edges’ and the excellent cover of the Nirvana classic ‘Milk it.’ ‘Numbing…’ makes good usage of atmospheric keys in this song plus some nice melodic riffing and Dalkiel’s painful sounding vocals are quite great. Towards the middle of the song things slow up a bit and suddenly the music consists of just the keyboards and some electro beats while Dalkiel mournfully screams out the lyrics. Subsequently the cover of Nirvana’s song ‘Milk it’ is really good. I’m an old school Nirvana fan so this cover is cool to hear and I was a fan of Nirvana before Kurt blew his brains out, unlike most people out there. Anyhow, Algol keeps the song rather true to the original and they do a nice job of capturing the same amount of emotion displayed on the original. The only real difference is the vocals during the chorus are black metal screams and there’s some usage of keyboards. Otherwise the songs are very true to the original and show the same amount of anger and angst that Kurt Cobain put into the original. Overall the band's five songs are all played nicely and it should be interesting to hear their next album.

Shroud of Despondency is a Michigan based depressive black metal band with a little bit of a doom & death metal sound combined herein. The band itself consists of just one member by the name of Rory Heikkila, but he has used various session members for his previous recordings. Now I tell ya the thing I like about bands such as Shroud is that they can go from playing slow and doomy to fast and brutal in a flash of a second, and they do this a lot since the four songs here are all long tracks each of which clock in at over nine minutes or more. Another nice characteristic is Rory’s vocals since they are diverse and full of flavor. They range from black metal screams to slow death metal growls on these four songs. In addition during the slower moments the band achieve a really spooky atmosphere that works well. I guess there really isn’t any particular track from this band that stands out more than the other, because frankly they’re all good.

All things considered the listener is treated to over an hour of quality music from these two American bands. Prior to hearing this split I hadn’t heard anything from either of them, but I think I’ll be keeping my eye on them from now on. Do yourself a favor and go pick up this CD from Paragon records.

Shroud of Despondency - Dark Meditations In Monastic Seclusion (2011)

It's strange the way sometimes bands from my past that I'd all but completely forgotten about occasionally make an appearance in my life nowadays. Sometimes its randomly through Internet browsing or suggested by a friend, but in the case of Shroud of Despondency the band moved from their previous location in Michigan to my hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Originally active from '00 to '05, Shroud mastermind, Rory Heikkila released two demos, one full-length and three split releases by himself before putting the band to rest shortly thereafter. Personally my only experience with the band was one of those splits, the, 'Whispers from an Empty Room' release with Algol, which was sent to me for a review back in '04. Sometime thereafter Rory moved here to Milwaukee and has since established SoD as a full band and has been busy already releasing two full-length albums, a live album, demo and another split release this year alone. One of those two albums was released in digital format whereas this one, 'Dark Meditations In Monastic Seclusion' got the real deal physical treatment and I picked it up after being impressed with the band on their opening slot at a recent Impiety gig here.

That old split release I mentioned was a rough and wild ride through some sort of discordant black-ish doom metal with acoustics that was a bit hard to get into, but I did enjoy parts of it. Jumping ahead to today I expected something a bit purer in black metal sound after their performance, but DMiMS continues SoD's style of being challenging... sometimes. After a lengthy acoustic track that's quite good with so-so lead vocals called, 'Looking Out, Seeing One Last Ray Of Light' the band suddenly blasts away on, 'Homo Homini Lupus' with an onslaught of double bass drums, tremolo picked guitars and harshly screamed vocals as well as the occasional more melodic headbanging riffs, clever solos here and there and some clean choir-ish parts are spread out through the this song/album.

Honestly, musically its all done quite well, black metal to the bone and songs like, 'Parting of the Way' & 'Sullen Murmur, Oppressive Stillness' are just fantastic, yet something seems odd about these and everything else. And then it hit me after a few spins. The production. I have no idea how to describe it other than it doesn't sound like a typical black metal production. It has a very organic and live rehearsal sort of vibe to it, but without much of the usual BM reverb or harsh treble sound it sounds awkward to me. Also the cleanly sung vocals are what they are and it takes a bit to stomach them, fortunately the band took the right path on the third acoustic piece, 'Flicker Of The Ardent Light' where the vocals are limited to just some background chatter. The main vocals are strange in their delivery but they grow on you after a while. I've been told vocalist Mike Jurek was recently replaced so this might not even be an issue on future material.

Fortunately the record is still atmospheric in its delivery and with the inclusion of instruments, such as; the flute, piano, cello, ebow, lapsteel and various other percussive additions during both the metal and acoustic parts the album is heightened greatly. Likewise both Rory and Jon Leidtke come up with some absolutely sinister riffs and I really enjoy the way the music seems to shift between acoustic to raging fast to depressive black metal territories and back again. Sort of like Wolves in the Throne Room meets Shining and Agalloch.

In the end this is a decent record, it really is, its just the production and vocals tend to make it an uneven ride. However I'd say either clean up or blacken up that production and work on the vocals and these guys are certainly on the way to creating one stunning record.