Kalmankantaja Discography (2012 - 2014)

Genre: Black
Subgenre: Depressive Black Metal
Bitrate: 320 k
Size: 810.74 MB

2012 Kalmankantaja (Compilation)
2013 Kuolonsäkeet
2013 Elävältä Haudattu
2014 Ikuinen Taival
2014 Ahdistus
2014 Musta Lampi
2014 Viimeinen Virsi

As the band name suggests, we are heading to Finland. As the label’s cozy name, Self Mutilation Services, suggests, it involves DSBM. Depressive suicidal black metal, so-called, began as a sub-genre with the Norwegian band Strid (“struggle”) in 1993. Among other pioneers, the following should be mentioned: Germany’s Bethlehem, which became increasingly misanthropic from 1996 toward the record with the initials S.U.i.Z.i.D. (1998); and the Australian one-man band Abyssic Hate, which evolved constantly toward this sub-genre during the second half of the 1990s until the first (and still only) full-length Suicidal Emotions saw the moonlight of night back in 2000.

Sweden’s Shining grabbed the torch with their first EP in 1998, and made the genre more familiar infamous with their early, diabolical albums during the first half of the 2000s. Also Italy’s Forgotten Tomb began at that time to pour out misery, depression, and malaise. It was not long before others joined the suicide train, including Germany’s Nyktalgia and the Danish band Make a Change … Kill Yourself.

In recent years, I have missed good, creepy releases. Countless new attempts have drowned in benign post-black advances, lousy sound, or other amateurish pitfalls. It is good to hear a band who put mental suffering in the driver’s seat once again. These two Finns present four songs, all between ten and fifteen minutes long, and the album clocks in at 51 minutes. Ikuinen Taival exhibits symptoms of a nasty musical depression, with repetitive, monotonous, and soaring guitars without abrupt transitions, as if not to startle the listeners out of their hypnotic, euphoric trance. Variation and melodies come creeping in as we silently shut down all mental and bodily functions and go into temporary hibernation.

Enjoy the natural comatose feeling of mesmerizing hypnotic gloomy dreariness, anguish, grievance, and malevolence.