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Review: And Now the Owls Are Smiling - Dirges
And Now the Owls Are Smiling
www.facebook.com/andnowtheowlsaresmiling
Dirges

Label: Clobber Records
Year released: 2021
Duration: 46:13
Tracks: 8
Genre: Black Metal

Rating:
4.25/5


Review online: March 1, 2021
Reviewed by: Sargon the Terrible
Review

I was surprised by this band's 2019 album, The Comforting Grip of Misery, as I didn't expect it to be good, but it really was. This is a one-man band playing expansive, melodic, depressive Black Metal with a definite stylistic debt to pioneering acts like Xasthur and especially Forgotten Tomb, though I absolutely hear influence from the long-vanished Woods of Ypres in the moody, melodic flourishes and sometimes adventurous songwriting.

The sound on this is, again, really good for a studio project, with a clear but nicely biting guitar sound and excellent riffs to work with. Everything here is mixed together into a wave of sound, yet the melodic ideas are developed and clarified enough to stand out. Each one of these songs has an identity and a lot of room to develop, as most of the tracks are fairly long, but they never wear out their welcome. If you are a fan of this kind of mood-drenched Black Metal, then this is a definite band to watch.

More about And Now the Owls Are Smiling...
Review: Epitaph (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
Review: The Comforting Grip of Misery (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
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