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Review: Xasthur - A Gate Through Bloodstained Mirrors
Xasthur
xasthur.mercurous.net
A Gate Through Bloodstained Mirrors

Label: Profane Productions
Year released: 2001
Duration: 72:31
Tracks: 13
Genre: Black Metal

Rating:
4.25/5


Review online: March 30, 2008
Reviewed by: Pagan Shadow
Readers' Rating
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Rated 4.29/5 (85.71%) (14 Votes)
Review

I don't recall having reviewed an album from Xasthur lasting less than an hour and it's certainly not the case with this re-release clocking in at 78 minutes!

Originally recorded in 2000-1, A Gate Through Bloodstained Mirrors has been re-mastered and Californian label Hydra Head present this new version with a second CD, A Darkened Winter promo' 01+1, which includes unreleased material. This album marks the beginning of a new era for Xasthur, when Malefic became the only member of his solitary crusade toward total darkness. Xasthur is renowned for creating stark landscapes of the most depressive nature. Even if this album is mostly instrumental, with occasional ghostly rasps, we can still easily recognize his sonic signature. Raw production, distorted guitars, ambient keyboards, dissonance, varied paces with a touch of melody in the clean guitar playing. This less than perfect sound suits perfectly the desolate and intimate vision of this solitary composer. I mean, could we expect Xasthur sounding like Gamma Ray or Edguy? For hell's sake, please no!!! Including a lot of good darkness like on the Burzum cover "Black Spell of Destruction", "Moon Shrouded in Mysery Part 1", "Suicide in Dark Serenity", "Storm of Red Revenge Part 1 and 2" and the track I liked the most, the title track.

Although A Gate Through Bloodstained Mirrors is long lasting, it goes by pretty easily, never boring and sort of soothing for those of us suffering from a seemingly never ending damn winter!

Additional Information

2008 re-issue on Hydra Head reviewed here - 15 tracks, 78 min.

More about Xasthur...
Review: A Gate Through Bloodstained Mirrors (reviewed by Lars Christiansen)
Review: A Gate Through Bloodstained Mirrors (reviewed by Michel Renaud)
Review: Defective Epitaph (reviewed by Pagan Shadow)
Review: Defective Epitaph (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
Review: Nocturnal Poisoning (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
Review: Split (reviewed by Michel Renaud)
Review: The Funeral Of Being (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
Interview with Malefic on October 22, 2004 (Interviewed by Chris Mitchell (Desolate Gale))
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