NOLTEM - Illusions In The Wake (Review By Gravarson)

Noltem is an atmospheric black metal band from the US with progressive elements and personally I would not label this black metal as this drifts far from what I think of when I hear the term.

The first track Figment has a Led Zeppelin'ish style riff that enters and I don't know what to think but it sounds good.

There is a lot of guitar work here and a wall of noisy doom, trancelike atmosphere.

The guitars varies between distorted and clean but the question is does this work as a piece of music or is it made just to "show-off" ?

It works perfectly, like a mix of chaos and harmony brought together into a wall of noise.

The musicianship is excellent and just when you thought the surprises where over Noltem brings in the blastbeats and it works, if it had not it would be a doom track I'd say.

Many bands try emulate this genre without luck because it's hard to play slow without sounding boring.

The synth FX and harmonics is a pleasure to listen to and they blend nicely in with the rest of the arrangement.

What makes this release still sounding good is the guitar hooks and riffs that completely change the structure of the song in a harmonic way.

All the songs are pretty long 6-8 minutes and it's a 6 track album.

The drum work is ok but it's nothing outstanding even though it fits the overall picture very well.

If I had to point out a thing I wasn't completely fond of here it has got to be the little variation in the vocals, they become very repetitive and almost too much for me after eight tracks.

At the first track they are good enough, but on this rather long album it's little variation and the rest can be said for all of the music here. Too predictable and boring even though there are some highlights if you wait 'till the last track 'Shores Of Glass´ which is a quite good epilogue. 

I would not recommend this to someone into their black metal. I play it to some people who were into dreaming and getting into another world.

Not someone who just like to put on a record and bang their head because this demands a lot from the listener.

Progheads might like it, I do only enjoy parts of the album.

I'm not saying it's a bad album, far from but a little more variation would not hurt because eight minute long tracks of overall slow doomy black metal can be hard to digest for people who are not high on something, or should I say down?

Worth giving a try.

For fans of - Agalloch, Saor, Felled, Panopticon, Falls of Rauros, Nechochwen

Gravarson-almighty

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Line up -
Max Johnson - Acoustic and electric guitar, keyboards, lyrics
John Kerr (Marsh Dweller, Pyrithe, Seidr) - Drums, vocals, keyboards, guitars
Shalin Shah (Protolith) - Bass guitar

Artwork by Anthony Hurd

Guest solos -
Zach Miller (Pyrithe)
Jordan Guerette (Falls of Rauros)
Aaron Carey (Nechochwen)

Mixed and mastered by Spenser Morris (Saor, Panopticon, Vukari)

Track listing -
1. Figment
2. Illusions in the Wake
3. Beneath the Dreaming Blue
4. Submerged
5. Ruse
6. On Shores of Glass