Aliénation – Aliénation
Band: Aliénation
Title: Aliénation
Label: Independent
Release date: December 1st, 2024
Country: Germany
Format reviewed: High-Quality Digital Recording
Aliénation is a new band of Post-Black Metal that was formed in 2023 this is their debut EP, and it consists of only two people: Allure and Sorg. They also count on some collaboration for programmed drums, and honestly, I thought there was a real drum kit because the sound is so real and vivid.
But what has surprised me the most about this album is its high level of quality. It has six songs, one of which is an intro, consisting of “fried” sounds, followed by atmospheric guitars, with an almost ethereal sound; and a short closing track, with programmed rhythms and synthesizer sounds that offer a dark and even distressing ending.
I mentioned the quality of Aliénation because the sound of their songs is very good, combining some elements of distortion (especially in the vocals, which are spectacular, and very raw, but also there are some passages of “clean” vocals that incorporate reverb and also distortion, almost hidden behind layers of instrumentation) with a bit of experimentation in the rhythms and tempos.
Lyrics are highly depressive, dealing with desolation, despair, no life, no joy at all… But the overall feeling when listening to the instrumentation is like a state of dark hope as if the gloom was moving away a little to show a horizon that is still cloudy but somewhat less grey, less depressive. Even if the songs are that sad and contain a lot of murky atmosphere, the alternation between tumultuous passages and calm parts is made with class, there’s no chaos, no loss of control. It’s a great contrast and I like it.
I particularly like “Lueurs funèbres”, the guitar playing is obsessive and the drums play plenty of varied tempos, and I love the way in which they speed up and burst into blast beats. The vocals are truly desperate and full of grief, and even if the lyrics are depressive, the music has some spark in it.
When a whole song (“Silhouettes disparues… (de la ville fantôme)”) is a massive wall of distorted guitars, shrieks that freeze one’s blood and that are mostly under the brutal wall of sound, drums doing use and abuse of blast beats and smashed cymbals, and two brief ethereal passages to catch your breath… this, THIS is the essence of Aliénation for me, the perfect union between depression and hope, between melancholy and an eerie spark of hope… Also, the following “Quia pulvis es” has a very dark ambiance, a cold and overwhelming sense of nothingness that embraces you from the start and floats around when the ethereal break arrives. It’s beauty that hurts, that heals you in despair.
What a debut… I’m really hooked on this album, short but honest and true to the genre. 9/10 by Sílvia
Band
Bandcamp
Instagram
Spotify
Facebook
9/10 Epic Storm
**Please support the underground! It’s vital to the future of our genre**
#WeAreBlessedAltarZine
#TheZineSupportingTheUnderground
