Kruor Noctis – Craven Whispers
New Zealand
Skaventhrone
Harrowing,
bleak and utterly raw black metal is the name of the game for these
Kiwis. Featuring
former members of respected
New
Zealand
bands
like Exordium Mors and Barshasketh, these guys already have a wealth
of experience tucked under their belts.
This little release
from 2019 called
“Craven
Whispers” is
a monstrous 2-track EP
composed of some truly savage black metal entwined
with passages of lengthy ambience.
The ambient
parts are quite dark and are able to induce a trance-like state before
the chaos and cathartic darkness totally
obliterates the senses.
The vocals are profoundly harsh and well-done, which goes hand in
hand with the raw
production.
I’ve been interested in the New Zealand scene for a while now, so
it’s always interesting
to
hear
bands like Kruor Noctis and what they have to offer, and
with this release, they certainly offer us something truly morose and
dark. Kruor
Noctis’ music radiates obscurity and cult black metal in every
conceivable
way,
and seem to take a bit after Vassafor, but add their own twisted
ingredients, which allows them to stand out a bit from their peers. I like how the title track takes about three minutes to
build up tension then floors you with a malicious assault of venomous
vocals backed by a wall of guitar distortion and morbid melodies. As
mentioned before, the songs have pretty lengthy ambient passages,
which are nicely mixed with the metallic elements without it
actually
being “ambient/black metal.” They’re more like bridges
or moments of introspection if
you will.
This
is the type of music you’d want to keep away from someone suffering
from chronic depression, because the fate of such a person subjected
to this kind
of audio terror would
only end in what I can imagine as their
brains
scattered all over the fucking
place. (But
maybe
that’s a
good thing!)
This
is a solid EP, but obviously the band is still in their development
phase, so I imagine something truly wicked this way comes with future
releases. Fuck, I would love to hear a full-length from these guys.
“Craven
Whispers” is
a 39 minute
ride into the blackest depths of despair.
Hail New Zealand black metal! (HT)