6-panel Digipak limited to 500 copies.
If you're feeling down, depressed and lonely, I know a game that you should play: Cry of Fear. Starting life as a humble Half-Life mod, this labor of love quickly gained notoriety as one of the most shit-yourself scary survival horror games ever made, as well as being a profound treatise on mental and physical affliction. Just about everyone celebrates the game's phenomenal atmosphere and surreal story, often drawing comparisons to Silent Hill 2. If you haven't played it, just imagine you're in that dark forest and come across a rusty doorknob on the floor. Upon picking it up, a twitchy man in a Sock & Buskin mask sprints at you from between the trees, howling like a seagull on fire.
This is all relevant because one of the very talented minds behind this game is also the frontman of a fantastic DSBM band called Intig. Utfryst is their third time around the block, with their albums following a steady upward curve of complexity and depth. As decent as their 2015 debut Empty was, Utfryst feels much more like a complete package, sharing a lot in common with some of the absolute titans of the genre, like Forgotten Tomb's Springtime Depression and Leviathan's Massive Conspiracy Against All Life. There are plenty of accessible, melancholy acoustics to marinate in, like the bittersweet toiling of 'C17H27NO2'. Fun fact: that's the chemical compound of Venlafaxine, an SNRI antidepressant that did not work for me. In hindsight, that fact wasn't very fun at all.
What is fun, however, is how this album's mood and atmosphere can radically change, even partway through a single composition. I feel this was done on purpose, to reflect the volatile nature of major depressive disorder. 'Blick', one of the earlier tracks, bears the hallmarks of the furious and cathartic shades of DSBM - strangulated wails and screams against an unremitting, unsympathetic wall of distorting harmonies. 'Dö', meanwhile, is completely apeshit insane. The fury of the vocals is almost animalistic, clawing its way through the clamorous, suffocating background of harsh, mechanized riffing. It's somewhat evocative of Abigor's Fractal Possession, in its own peculiar way.
The album loses a bit of steam after these tracks, with 'In the Stream of Killing Everything' paradoxically sounding a bit too coherent for its own good. Its acoustic chords are also instantly outshone by the album's closer. Easily the most triumphant accomplishment of the whole album, 'Life Wasted' is a phenomenon of DSBM. With haunting, memorable chord progression, and a breathtakingly inspired vocal performance, this solitary composition covers a breathtaking strata of human emotion, from frenzied rage to helpless sorrow. There's even a pronounced bass lead supporting the final passage, and how many black metal albums can you say that about?
DSBM is a bit of a tricky thing to review, because much like depression itself, it has different effects on different minds. Personally, Intig's discography has provided me with many hours of listening enjoyment, and has had a more positive effect on my mental wellbeing than any medication I've been prescribed with. Whether you would appreciate it the same way, or would prefer to stick with something like Freedom Call, that's totally up to you. Whatever keeps you happy in these dark times, y'know?
Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
