Thursday 17 November 2022

Superstatic "Glimmering Veil" Album Review


   Wanted to give this ridiculously overlooked album some much needed exposure and adoration, Superstatic is the side project of Rustam of the Russian Folk/Black/Doom outfit Rakoth, this is a completely different sort of entity to what Rakoth are all about with a sound stepped in the throes and misery of  90's inspired Death/Doom and subtle hints and odes to Funeral Doom luminaries such as Evoken,Esoteric and Skepticism,this is explored with magnificient abundance on the brilliant Glimmering Veil.




   Instantly there's a noticable theme with the opening track I Have No Mouth, and I Must Speak the unfathomable horrors that are about to unfold,you get the feeling with the musical structure that less is more with crushingly heavy riffs while making evrything about the atmosphere of the music,even a drum fill or simple riff adds an extremely dramatic yet bleak aura throughout this opus, Mutabor offers some really 90's inspired Death/Doom passages,this is possibly the only track on the album that has a plethora of Riffs but the focus on atmosphere is still prevelant even the presence of those whispering vocals create a foreboding darkness yet at the same time give an essence of something beautiful that lays beneath all the horrors, the darkness gets alot more noticable on House Dagoth the minimalistic tendencies within the album get used to devastating effect throuhgout this track combined with the intermittent chants in the background create an extremely haunting atmosphere.


   The Atmosphere is pushed to another level with the brilliant Edge those female chants at the start give a whole different element to proceedings and creates an extremely Ethereal yet dark ambience,again with get those whispering style vocals which have became that little bit nastier,not mentioned is the fantastic epic structure which is beautifully melancholic and adds alot of depth to the music, I Am The Doorway has a very strange type of electronic/keyboard parts that give off a really eerie atmosphere before going full on into some My Dying Bride type homage were things get that extra bit darker and heavier, The Rose Garden opens up with a beautifully arranged piano piece with a brief ochestral voice then suddenly that foreboding darkness and heaviness returns to hauntingly creep and crawl like a despicable entity lurking in the shadows ready to strike at any given moment, we go into the truly epic closing track Remember Citadel there's some sort of intermittent tranmissions that sounds like a computer programme or AI intertwined with slow building riffs and extremely taut drum sections and electronic parts, the brief heavy guitar parts and nasty growls push the whole horror inspired elements into an inevitable moment where the horrors have finally come to envelop you within a web of unescapable despair and tragedy finally consuming every fibre of your being.

   Superstatic have created a Death/Doom Opus of epic proportions, this is a really well executed and concisely created masterpiece with elements of Funeral Doom mixed with some 90's inspired Death/Doom throw in extremely dramatic and horror driven madness combined with an atmosphere that's beautiful,tragic and melancholic also created with a less is more ethos ,you're not likely to hear something as innovative and taut as Glimmering Veil in the near future.

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