(written by Islander)
In a time when musical dissonance has the upper hand across a wide swath of black and death metal, a band name like Eternal Dissonance would seem to promise more of that — sounds of discord, disharmony, and disorientation.
But the word “dissonance” has other meanings outside the realms of music, signifying states of mental or emotional conflict, or the difficulty of finding a way to live which frees the spirit and transcends all the adversarial forces in life which ceaselessly hinder or halt the pursuit of any such objectives.
And so the name of this Spanish atmospheric black metal band whose music is the subject of today’s premiere may have a different significance than acting as a signpost of cacophonous decibels. You’ll be able to decide that for yourselves when you hear the song “Ephemeral Glimpse“, extracted from the band’s second album Through the Endless (set for release on June 17th by the Darkwoods label).
Eternal Dissonance and Darkwoods are presenting this new song with a beautifully wintry and gray-cast video that provides changing scenes of nature, most of them far from human habitations or intrusions. The music proves to be as vast and daunting as some of those scenes, but also as haunting and as fragile as others. Altogether, “Ephemeral Glimpse” creates a powerfully immersive experience capable of taking a listener’s breath away.
In its opening phase, the song does create a kind of emotional dissonance through a contrast of sound. The music in the low end generates an immense and dismal throb, rough on the ears and desolate in its mood. On the other end of the sonic range, however, the music is (as the title foretells) ethereal. There, the music shimmers and glistens, moving in waves that soar to crests of panoramic magnificence.
Other sounds emerge in the music, most notably a trilling guitar presence that seems to melodically yearn and grieve, magnifying the music’s swelling emotional intensity as it ripples and squalls, reaching higher and higher.
At the song’s midpoint that enormous low-frequency throb vanishes, yielding to the music’s ethereal sonic spirits, which gently and magically shimmer and glitter. There’s a sense of mystical wonder in that passage which is spellbinding.
That feeling of wondrous transcendence doesn’t disappear, even when the drum’s slow stomp and the craggy heaviness of the riffing resumes. The high, trilling fretwork and other flickering frequencies still point the way.
You’ll notice that we haven’t mentioned vocals, and that’s because there aren’t any. In the context of this transcendental musical grandeur, a human voice would be an un-welcome distraction.
Eternal Dissonance is the solo work of Dargos (Wounded Soul, Neglected, Xenoautopsy), who also recorded the new album in his own studios. It was mastered by James Ginard.
Darkwoods recommends Through the Endless as “essential listening for disciples of Winterfylleth, Wodensthrone, Wolves in the Throne Room, Saor, or Fen.”
They will release the album in a 4-panel oversized Digifile, including a printed cardboard sleeve to protect the CD and a digital download card — limited to 66 hand-numbered copies. Darkwoods is also offering a Collector’s Edition, limited to only 10 copies, “presented in an elegant engraved wooden box with exclusive content.” Explore those options via the links below.
Also below, you’ll find a stream of the album’s stunning title song, which opens the record.
PRE-ORDER:
https://darkwoods.eu/webstore/en/band/eternal-dissonance
https://withinthedarkwoods.bandcamp.com/album/through-the-endless
ETERNAL DISSONANCE:
https://www.instagram.com/eternal_dissonance_bm
DARKWOODS:
https://darkwoods.eu/webstore/en/
https://www.facebook.com/darkwoods.eu
https://www.instagram.com/darkwoods.eu