Review by Sandre the Giant
The fourth full length record from Glaswegian depressive black metallers Gråt Strigoi is out now self released, but they’re getting a nice vinyl release in November through Fiadh Productions, a label that always does a nice job with their bands and their works. ‘The Prophetic Silence’ is almost an hour of hypnotic and visceral depressive black metal.
A rushing torrent of ferocious black metal pours from opener ‘Remembrance’, shrieks and blastbeats pepper this raging fury before it takes a more melancholic but no less visceral turn. The rawness and naked anger of this record is one thing you immediately notice; songs burst into view with scathing guitar lines and an atmosphere that feels like a shroud of acid rain. Sure, it is mysterious but your skin is also melting from your bones. ‘The Sacrifice’ is grim, crawling bleakness, a suffocating shade of grey that drifts into dark industrial, Axis of Perdition areas in parts. This intoxicating mix of styles suits their depressive, sobbing atmosphere that encompasses the album, seen again on the cold, melancholic tones of ‘Perennial Self’. The shrieking assault of ‘Upon the Darkest Entry We Dream’ reminds me of early, ‘Nightside’-era Emperor in both execution and sound, while the epic closer ‘For the Blood Made Ruins’ is a droning soundscape of emptiness, of hopelessness, of annihilation and fear.
Bleak, savage, oddly beautiful in its grimness, ‘The Prophetic Silence’ is a dynamic and rich record that is not afraid to bare its grey, broken soul as well as sandblast your face clean off. Gråt Strigoi’s sound is abrasive, grueling at times but not in a bad way. The intensity is spellbinding, the harsh rawness of it all enthralling, the tone and feel utterly essential. Black metal is rarely cheery, but it is also rarely this miserable.
https://www.facebook.com/gratstrigoi/
https://gratstrigoi.bandcamp.com/album/the-prophetic-silence