Unholy Faces of Dead

How many mentionable one man bands can someone find in the scene of Russia. It is a country that has created a tradition into the good, one man bands and Solis Occasum is one of them. They were formed during the first years of the ’10ths and since then they have released two full length albums, one in 2013 and the Unholy Faces of Dead album that I received, released in May of 2015. The album contains seven compositions of overall duration of twenty five minutes. The band is playing harsh Thrash/Black walking on the footsteps of the bands of the beginning of the ’90ies as also of bands of the first wave, especially Celtic Frost.

Into these few minutes the band achieves to evolve thoroughly its ideas, without become tedious for the listener but also by achieving to get from the beginning until the end, under his skin and it drag him into its madness with every riff, with every sentiment and atmosphere that it can offer. The riffs are violent, Thrashy, with a very dark approach. They are quite simple regarding their structure and absolutely straightforward while they approach a lot the feeling and the philosophy of the first wave of Black Metal. The atmosphere is violent and dark and it is playing a very important role into the compositions and into the experience that they offer to the listener. The tracks last as long as needed so as not to be tedious for the listener but on the contrary to maintain his interest onto high levels and at the same time to present thoroughly what the band wants to express.

The performance of the instruments is flawless for the demands of the compositions. On one hand they play with absolute accuracy their lines, but the most important is that they put out the feeling, the passion and the intensity that the compositions need. The guitars are those which play the first role. Their sound is harsh, heavy and dark while they create a chaotic and totally dark atmosphere. The bass is clearly audible and it fills the sound very well. The drums have interesting lines, fast outbursts, rhythmic parts full of energy and a few slow and torturing passages, while the turnings and the changes make the compositions more interesting. The vocals maybe are the element that completed the very beautiful scenery that Solis Occasum set. They are passionate, harsh Black Metal vocals which achieve to add a dark madness into the compositions. The production has put out a natural sound, quite harsh and dark, exactly as it should be in order to highlight the compositions. The mixture is balanced, trying not to interfere much with the natural approach of the sound. Finally the lyrics are not contained into the cd, while by the lyrics and artwork someone can understand that they are antichristian and profane.

Unholy Faces of Dead was the album that introduced me to the band and it was a pleasant surprise for me. The album transfers you to older eras and offers you a very interesting, straightforward and dark journey which can offer to you a very intense and a lot of feelings into the short duration that it lasts. For sure I will listen to the band’s first album too and I will be looking forward for their next one. The album is very good and it deserves your attention. Buy it.