Although their origins are unknown and identities willfully cloaked in a shroud of obscurity, it is known that the band have two public recordings in 2017 - a four-song demo as well as a split tape with esteemed Portuguese raw-scene kingpins VETALA, both through HARVEST OF DEATH - but hereby unleash what is their first full-length recording, O Olhar Atento da Escuridão. Haunting and harrowing in equal measures, this is the desperate howl from the deepest abyss.
Much like their contemporary countrymen, TRONO ALEM MORTE take significant influence from France's legendary Black Legions, but by no means are they exclusively tethered to such an iteration of black metal. For across the six-song/45-minute O Olhar Atento da Escuridão, this shadowy quartet will into being a whole host of malodorous sounds, emitting wave upon wave of parched-throat hollering and bent-completely-askew strings, their overt (and unapologetic) rawness a deliberate aesthetic conceit - for within those cracked cobblestones lurk yet more horrors, both metaphysical and emotional. Above all, that is TRONO ALEM MORTE's true trump card: sheer, stultifying emotion, run riot and rawly. An abject rejection of modernity, a plunge into a medieval dungeon knowing no time nor space: the atmosphere of O Olhar Atento da Escuridão becomes its own philosophy.
Hark! The time is at hand to bear witness to a new wave of Portuguese disease 'n' defiance. It shall be named O Olhar Atento da Escuridão, and it is ushered forward by TRONO ALEM MORTE.
For instance, this article is about 2 black metal bands that belongs to Aldebaran Circle, a Portuguese sect formed by Ordem Satanica (already reviewed some months ago), Trono Além Morte, Voëmmr and Occelensbrigg. In particular, today I'll review Trono Além Morte and Voëmmr, whose debut albums were released firstly on tape by Harvest of Death and secondly on vinyl by its parent label Signal Rex. Prepare to discover two totally insane entities from Portugal, a country that now is becoming a true kvlt for every maniac of the sickest forms black metal. As many bands from Portugal of the same genre (and of the same circle), not only the true identities of Trono Além Morte are completely unveiled but they plays a really raw black metal worthy of the LLN with a totally lo-fi production, minimalistic guitars with no solos, ultra-sick screams and an aura of frightful mystery and damnation like few others.
Among the 6 songs that characterizes their debut album "O Olhar Atento da Escuridão", I have to mention the slower ones because they are very particular and also my favorite. I am talking about the opening track "O Inverno da Alma e a Sublime Libertação", a real mantra of 10 fukken minutes, obsessive and focused mainly on the unpredictable variations of the drums; "Pesadelos Quebrantes", a kind of ballad forged by Satan in person where the vocals, supported also by great basslines, are so undefined to almost give to the song a psychedelic vibe of terrifying proportions; and the final episode "Ao Abraçar a Ingrata Morte", 9 minutes in which you listen to an agonizing march of the dead that becomes, in its final moments, a pure hellnoise thanks to a completely disturbed and broken guitarwork. Instead, the other 3 songs are faster and mostly focused on the blast-beats (especially "Infame Calamidade") but I believe that they are less effective than the slower ones. In conclusion, if you are into stuff like Black Cilice, Mons Veneris or Wóddréa Mylenstede (and if you like to love to hear some painful guitar feedback!), then the debut album of Trono Além Morte is a very good choice for you, also if it is really dangerous for your mortal souls! Otherwise...otherwise you can continue to read this article but beware because the next band is...
Flying in on the heels of their first demo and a split with Vetala, both released earlier this year by Harvest of Death, the debut album of the Portuguese black metal band Trono Além Morte will arrive on the winter solstice, December 21, via the same Harvest of Death. The album’s name is O Olhar Atento da Escuridão. A stream of one track from the album has been disclosed so far, and now we reveal the title track.
We are told by Harvest of Death that, like other of the band’s contemporaries in the Portuguese raw black metal scene, Trono Além Morte have been influenced by the storied Black Legions of France. They are described as “mages of majestic misery”, whose music becomes “a plunge into a medieval dungeon knowing no time nor space”. Although I prefer to come up with my own words — and I have — I quote these because they do ring true. Like the album as a whole, the song “O Olhar Atento da Escuridão” is a willfully abrasive, lo-fi assault on the senses, but one that has pronounced psychoactive properties, like the inhalation of a thick poisonous fog that burns the throat on the way into the lungs but has an ecstatic, hallucinatory effect on the mind. The band greet the listener with deep, seething riffs that trace a slow, heaving melody over a muffled drum rumble and ear-spearing cymbal strikes. It’s not a welcoming embrace, but there’s a grip here, and it only grows stronger as the drums accelerate into a loping gallop and the riffing rises to a bright, sulfurous boil. The intensity continues to mount, the drumming becoming more maniacal, the riffing more delirious, the vocals perhaps even more wretchedly unhinged. The music is wicked and wanton, and yet wickedly seductive, too, its eeriness a match for its ferocity. Even cloaked in thorns and dipped in poison, these strange melodies slither into the mind unbidden, with surprisingly addictive consequences. If, like me, you are seduced by these harsh sounds, you can pre-order from Harvest of Death (a division of Signal Rex) via the links below. I’ve also included the stream of a previous single (“Infame Calamidade”) in addition to our premiere of the album’s title track.
Regular cover with 3mm spine in 300gr thick cardboard printed in reverse side + insert
Sample:
