Totalselfhatred - Solitude (EN)

It is a kind of severity in the wind once the first tones of "Solitude" arise. Totalselfhatred wander through the darkest landscapes of Black Metal and the own soul on their third album. Therefore the Finns take almost seven years to portray this desolation in all its facets.

The severity in the introducing "Solitude MMXIII" is characterised by depressing pianos and an accoustic guitar that slowly appropriates the listener. The band comes cravenly out of the hideout til a musical storm is breaking loose. The drums burst out powered by disrupting screams while the whizzing guitars like to overtake the despairing shouts.

Totalselfhatred often take the time to let their music envolve. In this process they also reduce the sound like in "Hallow" to the absolute minimum and only the light drums with bassline and dreamy guitar riffs remain. However, these quiet periods can change abruptly all the time: The band storms up again without any warnings whereas the vocalist A. shouts against the inner uncertainness.

In the end the power of the vocalist and the band is similarly gone in the song "Nyctophilia". The Finns walk slowly on that path with carried drums and laid back guitar riffs where they previously left a wake of devastation. There are again the heavy tones of the piano that lets the band come to a stop.

Conlusion: Actually the spring is a release date out of place for such an album but when one looks outside these days where the world paints a rainy picture over the wide forests – indeed "Solitude" is the appropriate background music.

Rating: 8/10

Recommendations: Hallow, Black Infinity