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Krohm and Tenebrae in Perpetuum are one of the latest Split release pairings to come from Debemur Morti Productions, and for the underground Black Metal enthusiasts, it seems like an odd pairing of one-man Black Metal acts. Krohm had recently relocated from Connecticut to Seattle Washington, both in the USA, while Tenebrae in Perpetuum is stationed out in Italy. For many, these are two regions that have steller acts in the style, but those acts are hard to find since much of what the rabid fans find so alluring about Black Metal in the first place is the dark expressionism and cold, frostbitten atmospheres of desolation and misanthropy. Of course, today, Italian Black Metal bands are starting to become more noticed and seem to be weaving their own little subgenre of Black Metal, bringing in a more artistic approach to the music, and contributing to the growing Post-Black Metal style. But, both of these acts contribute three songs that have their own obvious approaches to the underground Black Metal world, but even by the generic standards of the style, the songs on this release really don't amount to much. One of the huge things about the underground Black Metal sound is that many of the releases carry with them a special atmospheric trait, which is typically meant to be enhanced by having a raw production quality. While the raw production is present on this Split release, the atmosphere, however, is greatly missing, and the songs suffer greatly from it. This leads to instant dissatisfaction with the release, finding the material to be presentable, but clearly missing the mark many ties over by both bands, and coming off more as just generic tracks that were recording for the sake of putting an effort out to have something new out. Of course, there are also other little probles with the release outside the atmosphere, but it seems to mostly impact in specific things related to that band, and not a common issue throughout the release from start to finish, such as varying production values. The recording starts out with the three contributions from US-based Krohm, one of the more well acknowledged bands of the underground sound, but for this release, it's hard to believe that this act has garnered so much attention. The material presented here is of a general low, raw quality with the typical guitar distortion one would expect from any Black Metal effort. The music is all played at a slow pace with an effect on certain guitar sections of songs to make them sound somewhat haunting, utilizing simple chords to convey that atmosphere while the vocals are low and heavily echoed to enhance that feeling further against slow, unimpressive, and clearly mechanical drumming from a drum machine. Of course, this greatly reflects the song "The Black Bridge". The rest of the songs seem to find more effort being put into them, such as "Toccato Dalla Desecrazione", which finds the guitar work really shining out a little more to create an environment for the music, but most of it seems to come off as a kind of dark, yet glorious approach until another guitar source is layered over that to handle the leads and pushes it towards a haunting environment. Much of the song just sounds chaotic, and often the guitars are drowned out and hard to follow. The track also features a slightly louder production quality, and a stronger echo, as well as a different approach, to the vocals entirely, being deeper, or as if it's some kind of evil whisper. For what this track is, it works, but none of it really creates a genuine atmosphere for the song, and just comes off sometimes as a wmess thanks to that lower production quality. Ultimately, there's nothing too special about these three tracks, though "Sentinel Monolith" is the strongest of the three bar far thanks to the faster pace and a clearer perception of the act not really going for atmosphere, but rather solid, straightforward Black Metal with just a little atmosphere that is solidified by the guitar solo. Tenebrae in Perpetuum is next, and closes out the release on a high note. The music presented on these three tracks does feature a decent amount of atmosphere, and the production is a little clearer compared to that of Krohm's contributions, which really helps to keep the guitars from sounding like a complete train wreck. The distortion, again, is the typical Black Metal distortion one comes to expect from any release of this style, especially from the underground, and the chords are often slow and dismal, almost taking on a doomish atmosphere, though the music does have it's moments where it picks up. The drumming doesn't sound robotic either, though the bass kicks sound a little more muffled then they should be, and the vocals are more at the front of the recording instead of in the background, but have a heavy echo effect and are layered to really just create this inhuman wailing sound that weaves nicely into the subtle dismal atmosphere of the recording, which is nicely enhanced by some background keyboards that play on the eerie side of things to enhance the overall atmosphere. These tracks really do make the album, and from "I" to "III", the tones of the atmosphere stay the same, while the music continuously shifts between a slower, dismal pace to a much faster, overall evil, brutal feeling with ease, though "III" seems to fade out quicker then it really should. In the end, this Split release isn't the best, but it's also not the worst. The contributions from Krohm leave a good deal to be desired, but the three tracks contributed by Tenebrae in Perpetuum greatly make up for the faltering of the first half. If you have yet to experience either band, this Split release would be a good place to start, but if you're not too sure, it's worth sampling on-line somehow first, especially given how the music varies from the stands of the underground Black Metal style, as well as from each other due to the different musical ideas and approaches that the bands bring in. While the music does vary and offers two different expressions of Black Metal, some of the material could have been executed, as well as recorded, a little better then what appears, and makes this piece more of a release for the collectors and die-hards of this more expressive style of music. |
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 (Krohm)  (Tenebrae in Perpetuum) |
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