
Striborg - Foreboding Silence [Displeased Records - 2008]Foreboding Silence is the second new album this year from highly prolific Tasmania one man experimental black metal project Striborg. And once again it shows him bending his blacked craft in inventive, atmospheric and grim ways, but it also follows the trend of this years other album Autumnal Melancholy with a more approachable and less bizarre sound than some of his early works One of the strangest elements this time around is the use of five or six weird ‘n’ short tracks(around a minute each) that pinprick the album through-out. There a mix of bizarre field recordings, horror film string/ flute creepiness and very odd dialogue samples, that might or might not be from bizarre films or made by Sin Nanna himself. The first full length track here is Lonely walk in a desolate cold pine forest which opens with an marriage of strange tinkling almost sinister toy synth repetitions, slow blacked crawling riff evil-ness and of course Sin Nanna blacked growl. As the ten minute track goes on the thinking synth element drops out to be replaced by a thick purring synth tone, discordant clean guitar elements and later it also picks up the pace a bit too. Later on we have Weeping abandoned spirit which kicks in with an surprising up-beat blacked punk/metal vibe- really sounding the most upbeat and approachable I’ve every heard Striborg sound. There’s little of his trademark longer synth ‘n’ creep tracks here with only one track intro 2 fitting the bill-it's built around tinkling horror piano and noisy grim synth throb. All in all another rewarding and distinctive blacked album from Striborg that though continues adding in more polished sound and more approachable elements still has it’s fair share of off-kilter and bizarre edges.      Roger Batty
|