The Gloomy Radiance of the Moon – As the Stars Shatter in Agony (Verbose Symphonic Black Metal)

 

Is verbosity the new aesthetic for black metal? Well, for the symphonic type at least, and in this case I feel it’s a requirement because that subgenre, in particular, brings with it grandiosity that demands an audience in a bedecked theater. I seem to recall hearing delicate whispers in the digital winds about The Netherlands’ The Gloomy Radiance of the Moon, but perhaps his mysterious, ethereal Internet presence has only made it that I feel as though it were so. Be that as it may, I decided against sampling this reaper-in-the-eternal-darkness-of-the-woods’ earlier pieces, and instead jumped straight into the sprawling, cinematic opus that is As the Stars Shatter in Agony. I’m not done yet, so you’re aware, we’re about to get even more fustian today.

   

Symphonic black metal walks a delicate line when it comes to tawdriness, and most fail because they lack an understanding of how to apply the critical element of synth and/or classical instruments. Generally, the majority of outfits mimic or duplicate melodies, and it falls into fatuity. Here, however, we find a true maestro of the subgenre, who relies primarily on synth to fashion his musical landscapes. Even the blast beats are second to them, an element that many a black metal band has depreciated for sheer intensity. It’s rather the orchestral vistas of this album that makes it materialize as meaningful. As ghostly melodies swirl around the icy, yet shimmering static of the riffing, flowing with spectral shrieks and moans, As the Stars Shatter in Agony becomes a captivating experience. At times the symphonic elements are almost exaggerated, yet so well integrated with the rest their emphasis never becomes existentially burdensome. The pieces here are vivid, metaphor-rich in their storytelling quality, but do not allow the sonic majesty of The Gloomy Radiance of the Moon to ever forget the grim origins of black metal as a whole. Though some moments occasionally lose the grandeur you’ll learn to expect, he immediately draws it back together, as though these touches of vapidity are intentional. Let’s assume they are.

 

The Gloomy Radiance of the Moon Official Bandcamp

Written by Stanley, Devourer of Souls

The Gloomy Radiance of the Moon – As the Stars Shatter in Agony
dusktone
Cover Art: Band
4.5 / 5