Echoes in Black Holes

The phenomenon of the internet has helped a lot of bands in many ways, even in creating music from distance. Such a model of making music is followed by Trou Noir too, at least regarding one of their members, as the two of the three members come from Russia while the third one come from France. As you understood, they consist of three members, they were formed in 2011 and they have released a demo and a full length album. “Echoes in Black Holes” is the demo of the band which was released in 2011 and it contains tem compositions of overall duration of half an hour. By the first notes of the first track the Austrian Summoning came to my mind. The style of the compositions is almost the same. The atmosphere and the feeling that Trou Noir create with their music, is a completely different case.

The riffs are of medium and slow speed while there are also a few faster passages. Most of them are clean, atmospheric and they create a dark atmosphere which can hypnotize you, and depressing feelings. Another of their feature is the monotony, but a monotony which achieves to drag the listener into the “Black Hole”. The band with simple but full of feelings riffing, with the beautiful structure and the short duration of the tracks manages to create images to the listener, to transmit feelings and to take him to a journey into the vast and dark space that it create. Apart from those I mentioned above, a very important element which helps the compositions is the sound. The production puts out a warm and sweet sound which makes you feel that you sink into the melodic riffs, while the very good mixture has found the balance that the compositions need.

The guitars are the main instrument in the compositions. Their sound is clean and they deliver the feelings and the atmosphere of the compositions very well, while the acoustic guitar that is played in various parts makes the atmosphere more intense. As much as I tried to listen to the bass, I didn’t manage to find it anywhere. In a different occasion this would be a big mistake but here I didn’t feel its absence. The lines of the drums are on one hand monotonous but with some changes when you don’t expect them, they catch your attention. The drums are played with accuracy, power and stability. One of the elements of the album that I think that stands out is the vocals. Distant, chaotic, harsh Black Metal vocals which depending on the intensity and the feeling they become screams, maybe they don’t help the listener understand what the lyrics are saying but they fit to the style of the compositions and they make them more interesting. The lyrics are not contained in the cd and I don’t know anything about them.

The first effort of Trou Noir is successful. Although I am not a fan of the genre of the music that the band plays, their music dragged me inside it, it made me feel sentiments and see images and follow the band to their journey. I look forward to listening to their full length album in order to see if that weird “international” band will have to tell us anything in their next steps too. The fans of the sound buy it. The rest of you it worth to give a chance to “Echoes in Black Holes”.