Search - Twilight :: Twilight

Grand Opus of USBM

Belleme | Tacoma, WA USA | 09/13/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album is staggeringly good, expressing all the elements that a True Black Metal album should have. The ethereal melodies draw you into unknown thoughts and emotions, turning into a truly alien style of music. You won't find any Marduk-style self-deluding foolishness on this album. Just entrancing, atmospheric, underworld-like songs laden with tortured vocals and soaring guitars. The drums and vocals are carried throughout the album with cavernous reverb, obscuring the words most of the time but contributing to the feel of the album.



Being Xasthur worshipper, it is interesting to hear the enigmatic genius known as Malific contribute in a group effort. Everything that Malific touches turns to black flame and ashes.



Don't buy this album if you don't understand underground Black Metal. This is an expression of Void, not speed-metal draped in juvenile ideas of Satanism. One only needs to listen to songs like "White Fire Beneath Black Text" or "Winter Before" to hear it.



"

Black Metal Lives

Shaun C. Mackey | 12/12/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"These bands individually are all pushing forward the heart of what 'true' black metal means without getting stuck in the rut of so many bands who want to clone the past. Together they've created a masterful work of melodic noise, dark atmosphere's and darkly beautiful sound-scapes of endless despair. This, along with Nachtmystium's 'Demise' album are probably two of the greatest signs that America has take the pass of the torch and run with it to express the gospel of Black Metal in their own voice. The glamorous bastardization's of popular "black metal" will never satisfy those of us who need something more real... Twilight does not disappoint. From the intense first track they ward off those who will never understand, and call out to those who'll hear their voice.



HAIL. BLACK METAL!!!

"

Not of this world.

p_drl | 08/27/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Supporters of black metal approached this USBM collaboration with skepticism. Twilight is composed of the core members of Nachtmystium, Krieg, Xasthur, Leviathan, and Draugar. While each of these bands have their original sound, the end result of the different types of BM clashing with each other is nothing short of unearthly. The guitars display a perfect balance between the depressive beauty of Xasthur, the grim obscurity of Leviathan, and the nihilistic chaos of Krieg. Vocals are switched between Malefic, Wrest, and Lord Imperial; each of them a hellish and original vocalist in their own right. Many of the vocals are distorted and layered with delay, giving the vocals an all-around cavernous atmosphere. Imperial's raw screams coupled with Wrest's painful shrieks and wails sounds like Hell itself, and Malefic's painful and muffled hoarse cries of misanthropy will chill to the bone.



Firstly, the composition here is incredible. The majority of the songs allow all the different faces of the artist to shine through, all while keeping it managable and fresh. Xasthur-like arpeggios and minor-chord strummings echo over the driving and grim power chord bashings of Azentrius and Imperial. The layering of multiple instruments is obvious, and even for a straight BM album, there's tons of experimentation going on. (Most likely coming from Wrest and Azentrius.) Many of the songs utilize ambient synths and beautiful yet sad-sounding clean guitars with e-bows. The guitars also have a lot going on as well, and thankfully the riffs can still be deciphered through the moderate fuzz in the production, which shows that black metal can still be raw and unbridled, but still be digestible to most ears.



The atmosphere is incredible, alternating between dementia-like states of "Woe is the Contagion" and the detached and cerebral depression of "As the March of Worms" or "Beyond Flight (Beautiful and Malignant)". It all comes together as the blackest catharsis in audio form, finding the beauty in decay and nihilism.



I highly recommend this album to anyone looking for obscure, real, and unbridled BM. Twilight's debut is by far one of the best BM albums to come out in the past few years.



Favorites: "Exact Agony, Take Life", "As the March of Worms", "White Fire Under Black Text", "Swollen Voices in Silence.""