TRISTITIA - One With Darkness - Orange Vinyl LP

Tristitia blends Gloomy Darkness into classic Doom Metal like no has done before... or after. Sweden has created a few classic Doom Metal bands, the primary one being Funeral. However, there is a side of the Swedish doom sound that is tied to the feeling of bands like Storm and some of the Isengard songs. It features many classical acoustic guitar pieces that will remind some listeners of Ulver’s acoustic work. Slow folky riffs, with primarily deep clean singing, some use of keyboards, and a touch of Black Metal vocals. The general feeling on here is not as slow and depressive as much Doom Metal, it is much more driving, but with an often-beautiful medievalist sense of atmosphere. The folksier riffs help to make this much more medieval than much other Doom Metal bands. This album is draped in a very good dark atmosphere of dark castles, forests covered with snow and deep depressive caverns. Vocalist Thomas Karlsson is the possessor of one of the most distinctive voices in metal, interchanging between a sinister snarl worthy of his Black Metal origins and a majestic, richly deep-toned baritone usually only mythological beings would summon. It’s these intonations that ordain the downtrodden, almost cabalistic timbre that truly could be a din for some proposed doomsday. Doom-laden soundscapes swirl in the somberness of acoustics, otherworldly keyboards, yearning cello, and the odd gothic overtone the vocals dwell in, hanging portraits of the grandiose throughout the walls of these eleven tracks. As an avant-garde production, One With Darkness will not be embraced as easily as most releases, which includes doom endeavors, but then most releases don’t simply radiate something either diverse or special either. A sound to be heard, cultivated, and judged!