Sear Bliss
The Pagan Winter
In The Shadow Of Another World
[II Moons]


I'm not very familiar with the history of Hungary's Sear Bliss, but from what I've been able to gathered, this is the bands first demo (The Pagan Winter) plus an extra track (In The Shadow Of Another World). This is a rather unique blend of black, death, and doom metal, and has a fairly original sound. I was trying to peg who they sound like, but a comparison did not come to mind easily. The music is generally mid-paced with a very melancholic feel to it, and is somewhat reminiscent of Katatonia's "Dance of December Souls", but generally more up-tempo in pace. Vocals are sort of hoarse sounding (imagine a less vehement sounding Nocturno Culto from the Panzerfaust album), and fit into the music quite nicely (although from the different line-ups listed inside the CD, this singer is no longer with them). Synths are present, but used tastefully (which is good news for those of us sick of one finger casio metal), but what *really* adds another element to the sound is the use of...get this...trumpet! Now, I had been told before listening to the CD that they used said instrument, and I was expecting the worse (lets face it, trumpet isn't exactly what one would normally consider an appropriate addition to metal), but to my surprise, it actually works VERY well - as a matter of fact, I don't think Sear Bliss would be *nearly* as interesting without it because it adds such a sorrowful feel to the music and really helps set them apart from everyone else. As for the rest of the band (two guitarists, a bassist and a drummer) - they're all proficient in their instruments and gel together very well. For a demo, this is phenomenal - the playing and song writing are of the highest caliber, and the production is very well done - each instrument stands on it's own, and considering the band consisted of seven members, that's quite a feat - this could have easily turned into an over-saturated heap of noise. I have no qualms about recommending this to those of you with an appreciation of metal with an atmospheric edge (Katanotia, Bethlehem, Ophthalamia - that sort of thing). Hell, I'd almost describe this as the "metal" equivalent to the "Wall of Sacrifice" CD by DEATH IN JUNE - it's of THAT high a quality. I look forward to hearing more from this band in the future...


© 1999 chorazaim