Astrofaes ‎"...Those Whose Past Is Immortal" CD Digipack

Really, this review would suffice with just one word: Must-buy! It is that simple, folks.
Starting out as a somewhat symphonic band looking for a separate niche in the largely saturated black metal scene, Astrofaes found their own style with The Eyes of the Beast. Largely dispensing with the fuzzy guitar-sound and the sometimes ill-fitting keyboard parts that could still be heard on Dying Emotion’s Domain, the focus was shifted towards a clearer and more prominent guitar-sound whilst combining beautiful melodies with epic passages, furious drumming and break-neck riffs. And that is exactly what we get on this album.
Once again Astrofaes was able to come up with songs that are nearly perfect in their compositional make-up. As with the band’s previous efforts, each song stands convincingly on its own without ever getting repetitive or plain boring. Moreover, I couldn’t find any part in any song that sounded like filler or something hastily composed just to draw out the song’s duration.
While this in itself is something noteworthy, it doesn’t stop there. Besides the originality, Those Whose Past is Immortal is about emotion and reminiscing about a past that must be rediscovered and retrieved, something that is conveyed perfectly throughout the album; it is filled with a strong sense of longing. As said before, the music shifts from relatively peaceful passages to a whirlwind of (blast-beat) aggression, and back again, in a never-ending stream. Exactly these epic passages, such as can be found in “The Principle of Existence” and “Blackest Mountain Chain of Cursed Time,” express this feeling of longing, which adds a certain atmosphere that makes Those Whose Past is Immortal more than just highly original black metal.
All in all I can plainly state that this is one of the better albums I’ve heard recently. Together with Drudkh’s The Swan Road, Those Whose Past is Immortal is one of the albums to buy.

Now here comes excellent black metal of a no-nonsense raw and primitive kind with buzzing guitar and fast drumming yet a black metal that's embellished with elements of Ukrainian folk music. Astrofaes hail from the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, an industrial place which must surely one of the Grimmest of Grimm environments: just the right setting for one of the strongest BM scenes in the world.
The group's music achieves a good balance between melody and other traditional song-based structures and elements on the one hand, and on the other, those aspects of more lo-fi, noisy and riff-based black metal. Each song on the album is evidence of a sound knowledge of songcraft and composition and all are forceful, distinctive and fairly self-contained within the album; none needs tricked-up atmospherics or special effects and such details are used very sparingly if at all. The overall impression is of a very stirring recording with emotional intensity and love and reverence for one's country: a recording that's sure to take listeners' breath away and sweep them along in its grandeur.
The best tracks are the beautiful and surprisingly uplifting "The Depths of the Past" on which acoustic stringed instruments, piano and steely guitars join together on wonderful melodies and guitar runs that mobile phone corporations, if they shared a brain, would be falling over themselves to buy; and "Soul of the Black Forest" which has some very spaced-out keyboards work over driving guitar riffs.
Surprisingly Astrofaes have not recorded very much material after this album - only one other full-length and a couple of short pieces. The fact that two members are shared with the more high-profile Drudkh might have something to do with the small output that Astrofaes have had since 2005.
I wrote the original version of this review for The Sound Projector (Issue 15) in 2007; the issue is no longer in print and as far as I can see a soft copy is not available.

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