Split between ancient spirits of Iberia and Poland. Needless to say, this is the best work i´ve done to date...
Eternal hails to: Fauros, whitemoon, diabolical fullmoon, EastSide and defernos.
One of the most pleasant surprises of this year was getting to know two new bands that showed great potential from the beginning of this year and halfway through it. Azelsglare is a band from Spain that I got to know thanks to the EP they released in January and that quickly caught my attention with the great atmosphere and respect it showed in its compositions for the Polish (TTF), Russian (BBH), and Spanish scenes, creating a great EP that left me with expectations on the lookout for new material; on the other hand we have Whitemoon, which is made up of Fauros as the main musician and Leszy from the already known bands D.F. or Wartodd. And with their demo (which I already made a review of and it’s in my collection since it came out) it left me fascinated for the same reason I love D.F.: it is an ode to Polish black metal in its greatest splendor and that easily is among the best of the year, giving us a demo full of violence, aggressiveness, rawness, great vocals, riffs, etc... all in one single demo, showing the potential the band has. All this led to the fact that the best surprise I could receive before finishing this year was the split between these two bands, which already had me on the lookout and thirsty for more music from these two musicians; it is a split that can easily be summed up in: Quality.
The split, although it does not have a title that can define it from the beginning, I can say that the atmosphere it has is simply pagan and an ode to the old classic 90s black metal of the Polish scene and even the Spanish scene itself. The split begins with Azelsglare and an intro that, with a bell sound, already warns you of what’s coming, making you enter that dark, ancient, and pagan atmosphere in the first instant and that soon is going to rise with much more grandeur with “A Blaze from Ages Long Past,” which is enough just reading the title to feel what the song already expresses on its own with its powerful and really dynamic riffs, I dare to say that it is the most dynamic work Azelsglare has done, adding different types of tempo in the drums, constant changes and even clean parts that remind me of bands like Forgotten Woods. Azelsglare’s side is magnificent and dynamic, giving you all kinds of atmospheres with its 3 tracks, both atmospheric and even “rock-ish” that undoubtedly make this their best work (even said by Ephel).
After this first part so lively and dynamic, we move on with a really beautiful atmospheric track of acoustic guitar that serves as an intro for Whitemoon’s part, which, as their demo has already shown, is loaded with raw and aggressive black metal despite the fact that in this work the songs that Fauros creates are of a slower tone, more melancholic and even more atmospheric than what he produced in his demo, which was mainly aggressiveness and speed. Here he develops an even more doom sound that, accompanied by keyboards, creates a beautiful atmosphere and that fits perfectly with what Azelsglare developed in the first part—a sound so beautiful and expressive is perfectly contrasted with the production and the raw vocals of Fauros, which contributes even more to both sides of the split feeling like listening to a single unique work more than a split, something that personally I say and affirm is a great, great success; they are two different parts that really do not move away from each other and that make the transition from each part to the other simply perfect and not boring.
In conclusion, I think this split is a 10/10 that enters among the best of the year, a coherent split with the songs and the bands, since both are new but at the same time sound as if they were from the 90s and have demonstrated the musical quality of each of its musicians. You know a split is really good and concise when you can’t decide which side is better, the only clear thing I have is that it is a solid work that highlights the great name of both bands.
Sample: youtube.com/watch?v=fJE1qlneqio&list=RDfJE1qlneqio&start_radio=1
Sample:
youtube.com/watch?v=ZzmCKgwlVXo&list=RDZzmCKgwlVXo&start_radio=1
