Striborg — In The Heart Of The Rainforest / Misanthropic Isol

This is the next chapter in Displeased records reissue series of old  albums by Striborg -the prolific and often avant-garde  touched one man Black Metal project from Tasmania. This one brings together In the heart of the rainforest which originates from 2000 &  Misanthropic isolation from 1998; both which were original released in very ltd CDR form at the time.

First up we have the near on half an Hour and 5 tracks of In the heart of the rainforest; with the tracks been for the most part fairly speedy blacked lo-fi metallic attacks with the bass often mixed quite high in the songs. But as usually with Striborg’s work there's enough bizarre, creative and interesting edger’s to make his blacked craft stand out from your standard run of the mill blacked metal. Highlights come in form of the title track which  presents a rather memorable  bassy mid-pace riff that feels rather like metallic 80’s indie fed through Stirborgs Grim & blacked filter. With the track having a rather great rudimentary  played wonky yet rather buoyant  keyboard element coming in towards the end of the track. The opening track Forest Of Fear  and it’s blacked noise grain sound – coming off across like a mix of a mass of feasting flies & slow move storm noise.

Then we’re onto Misanthropic isolation from 1998 which starts off with the instrumental track Nocturnal, Transparent Rainbow - which is sampled elements from Popol Vul’s soundtrack for Nosferatu along with vinyl crackly, storm noise and blacked noise matter over the top. Next we into the title track which starts off with slow lo-fi blacked bass wonderings before kick up into a speed attack. But the guitar is barely audible with the drums sounding like someone  banging on a table along with pots and pans, with manic ‘n’ haphazard bass wonderings and Striborg mumbled grow over the top- all making an wonderful lo-fi blacked brew. Yet again through-out the album all the tracks are very blackedly enduring and creative slices of blacked metal; but maybe  been a bit more varied in pace, blacked vocal out spills then In the heart of the rainforest

Really if you’ve enjoyed Striborgs other distintive and often highly creative forays into Blacked metal craft this is a no-brainer and must buy. And if you dig off-Kilter blacked metal and you’ve still to hear Striborg this is as good as anywhere place to start.