Striborg/Claustrophobia — Black Hatred In A Ghostly Corner
Up first we have the three Striborg tracks and first of these is the twelve minute grim epic “Psychic Visions” which finds the project using their distinctive and ghostly vibe like keyboard textures as the main sonic point of reference with supporting roles from rather stripped, bleak sounding drums, crude / barren vocal roars, and thin but creepy and ultra grim guitar textures. The track goes from mid-pace to slow and is a nice example of Striborg in ultra barren and bleak form. Up next is “Telekinetic Trance” which is a nearly four minute track of wavering and ghostly banks of hazed grim keyboard dwell, with vibe ribs and hand played synthetic drum accompaniment appearing later on. And for the last Striborg track we have the just over eight minutes of “Black Shadows Of The Wraith” which is a mid-paced track that’s thick with droning and grimly sour vibe/bell synth textures, pitter patter of stark drum patterns, and blackened growls. All three tracks are ok, though they all use quite similar synth textures and effects- I guess you’d say these are passable slices of Striborg craft, but there certainly not classic tracks by any means.
Onto the second half of the split and the Claustrophobia tracks, and up first is the track “Ghostly Melancholy” which is a mixture of fantasy soundtracking like to grim sounding keyboard lines, growled and muffled vocals, steady mid -paced beat and a sheen of guitar texturing. It’s quite rousing and low grade epic at times with it’s mock string synth swirls that bring to mind fighting fantasy type sound tracking, though there are grim more bleak keyboard lines too. Next is “Painful Abyss” which is mixture of grim synth dwells and creepy layers of reverbed/echoed drips, whispers, whooshes, moans, ect. Lastly we have the near nine minutes of “Cancerous Psyches” which opens with mean ‘n’ moody yet grim mid-paced stripped guitar and drum work-out, before the keyboards bite into the mix with the vocals, and the track takes on a sort of shimmering and eerier vibe which brings to mind a more up pace and slightly oriental touched take on 80’s Italian horror film soundtracking with a black metal edge, also at times it also sounds like a 80’s synth goth pop group gone Black metal- when the pace goes more up-beat and pushing with it’s feel. It’s a great track and a highlight of this split.
So this is certainly a worthwhile split with Striborg offering up three passable if slightly predictable tracks, and Claustrophobia offer up tow slight more consistent tracks a great third track. Certainly worth pick-up if you’re a fan of the depressive/ ambient side of black metal, or even if you’re a fan of synth horror movie soundtrack with a slight blacked metal/rock edge to them.