This is a split album between Sapthuran and Leviathan, where the first three tracks are by Sapthuran and the last five are by Leviathan.
Tracklist
1- As A Tale Told By The Leaves And Whispered By The Winds
2- And Autumn Sheds Its Final Tear
3- The Wanderer: Blood In The Forest
4- Odious Convulsions
5- The Fourth Blind Wound
6- Another Sip Of Fear
7- Crushing The Prolapsed Oviducts of Virtue
8- Mesmerism
Sapthuran
The intro of the first track sounds like wind blowing that fades into its musical translation; instruments blinded by a solitude bears the voice of a gloomy forest in all its coldness. The music is characterized by low volume vocals and semi-blast beats in themes, like that of the early Norwegian Black Metal scene, and resembles Xasthur in many elements, specially the guitar tone.
Truly depressing, raw and cold, working with apparently underground recording notable by the low-fidelity of the drums. The solos are played on a nylon guitar showing a Depressive Suicidal Black Metal approach to the Post-Black Metal scene. The first and third track are very similar, however the second track has an entirely different approach. “And Autumn Sheds Its Final Tear” is clean, experimenting with ambient/neo-folk music where a guitar plays and ambiance is created by the sound of wind playing in the background.
Leviathan
The intro of Odious Convulsion eases you into the song’s Ritualistic, Satanic mood of Psychological Horror and Traumatic Paranoia. Leviathan intermingle their style with that of the raw First Wave of Black Metal which is notable from the breaks and vocals. As you progress through the tracks, you’ll notice a richness with variation and appropriate synthetic effects.
You’ll also notice that Leviathan get closer to their own style as you reach “Crushing The Prolapsed Oviducts of Virtue” with its horrific guitars and howling. Leviathan’s part is majestic and bestial, depressive and misanthropic, and is both progressive and evolutionary even though they remain underground and true to their Black Metal.
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To sum up, both bands have their unique style and theme; Sapthuran is more sorrowfully depressed whereas Leviathan is more traumatically paranoid. Even though that is the case, both bands share similar elements which make this split a truly great listen for anyone whose ears won’t bleed.
