MESARTHIM - .- -... ... . -. -.-. .

Mesarthim - .- -... ... . -. -.-. . (2016, Avantgarde Music)

Australia and Black Metal have a weird connection and many bands as Midnight Odyssey and Mesarthim have embraced the Darkspace bandwagon of Atmospheric Black Metal with a penchant for the cosmos themes. Many bands have done the same deal with more or less success. In the case of Mesarthim, a recent one man band, formed in 2015, the melodies and common grounds of the Atmospheric Black Metal was learnt very well. Does it translate in the album weirdly titled .- -... ... . -. -.-. .?

As with Atmospheric Black Metal, yet melodic in this case, the melody is melancholic at best and epic at others. The wall of sound is overcrowded and the production is mostly muffled by this barrier of sound. Yes, screeching vocals and the fast guitars give this Black Metal sound fix your truly needs, but the drums are distant as when I hear my second neighbor mowing again his lawn for the third time this week in fucking October. Here in Quebec the lawn doesn’t grow anymore this late in Fall. But I digress.

It is a huge problem of mixing and production here and I would hope that despite this I would enjoy the album. I do, but I am struggling to admire it because of that. The keyboards are taking a lot of space in the tracks and it may be fine for some bands but I think that the threshold is here to choose between more keyboards à la Will Ferrell or a bit less prominent.

It is still a very good record and my love for anything Black Metal and/or atmospheric is satisfied but I think that the album misses an extra layer of finishing to enter the highly wanted and not so often awarded Best New Music tag.

7.4