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The Howling Void - Shadows Over The Cosmos review




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Reviewer:
8.2

29 users:
8.1
Band: The Howling Void
Album: Shadows Over The Cosmos
Release date: June 2010


01. The Primordial Gloom
02. Shadows Over The Cosmos
03. Wanderer Of The Wastes
04. The Hidden Sun
05. Lord Of The Black Gulf

There are funeral doom albums that evoke horror and nightmarish visions, others woe, despair and painful emotions, sometimes though, funeral doom tends to offer some moments of tranquility, relaxing your mind, maybe presenting a travelling aspect as well. To tell the truth, it might be hard to enjoy this last kind of expression if you're not into lengthy, atmospheric and slow-pace music (not necessarily metal) and that's what The Howling Void deliver with their second attempt, Shadows Over The Cosmos.

Everything you might need is here, the only thing that's missing and you should put into play is your mind, well, actually let it loose and journey through the music's calm waves. The cover artwork may have a bleak aura while drowning in lifeless shades of a darkening, almost barren horizon, strengthening the title of the album, but don't let it misinterpret the main ambiance of Shadows Over The Cosmos. Thanks to the keyboards and the overall atmosphere, Shadows Over The Cosmos succeeds in seducing any bothering thought that might be tresspassing your harmony at the moment, even if some guitar riffing, distressing chords and deep grunts try to bleaken the overall mood, like on the title track. In the end, they seem like the aforementioned state of mind that is being driven away since you've cherished "Wanderer Of The Wastes". The first three compositions float in serenity and only on "The Hidden Sun" a glimpse of overwhelming melancholy makes its appearance underneath the dreary clouds, the weather forecast predicts of rain, prologuing the ending opus, "Lord Of The Black Gulf", that all of a sudden appears as a thorn in the heart of tranquility, dreadful, ominous, desolate. Now you know that all this journey was a hallucination, all you had cherished was nothing more but the calm before the storm.

If you pay attention to the titles of the songs, they are the journey itself, they give you hints, but you can't know for sure, not until The Howling Void's arms caress you while floating on calm water, to suddenly suffocate and finally drown you. Shadows Over The Cosmos is a siren demanding gently for your soul, let her singing do the job.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 9
Songwriting: 8
Originality: 7
Production: 9





Written on 23.09.2010 by "It is myself I have never met, whose face is pasted on the underside of my mind."


Comments

Comments: 13   Visited by: 153 users
23.09.2010 - 18:53
Marcel Hubregtse
Grumpy Old Fuck
Another pedestrian funeral doom album. Along the lines of the latest Ea maybe just a tad better. A 7.6 I would say. Seems like most funeral doom releases this year don't have that spark that's needed.
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Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal

Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight
Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.)
05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996

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23.09.2010 - 18:57
Merchant of Doom

Good review, of a majestic album... it's a 9.0 for me...
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23.09.2010 - 18:59
Daniell
_爱情_
Let me land in between, 8 from me.
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23.09.2010 - 19:21
Marcel Hubregtse
Grumpy Old Fuck
Daniell wants to get sandwiched by two guys
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Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal

Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight
Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.)
05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996

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23.09.2010 - 19:23
KwonVerge
Odysseus
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 23.09.2010 at 19:21

Daniell wants to get sandwiched by two guys

I will review the whole thing
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Dec. 30, 1334.

...And the whiskey and wine entered our veins when blood was too weak to carry on.
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23.09.2010 - 19:25
Marcel Hubregtse
Grumpy Old Fuck
Aha Rozz loves to watch
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Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal

Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight
Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.)
05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996

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23.09.2010 - 19:26
Daniell
_爱情_
As long as copyright goes to me, you can even film it!
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23.09.2010 - 19:27
KwonVerge
Odysseus
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 23.09.2010 at 19:25

Aha Rozz loves to watch

It's more doom to watch, you feel doomed in isolation
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Dec. 30, 1334.

...And the whiskey and wine entered our veins when blood was too weak to carry on.
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23.09.2010 - 21:25
!J.O.O.E.!
Account deleted
What the hell has happened to metal storm? Marcel leaking man juice, now he's joining in menage a trois' all over the place D=
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24.09.2010 - 01:37
ß
Problem?
I think the review sums it up quite nicely.
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My music blog - Updated regularly.
To live is to think - Cicero
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25.09.2010 - 03:54
Rating: 9
Thanntos

Really like this album, and good review.
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I will kill you so hard you will die to death.
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26.09.2010 - 22:44
Rating: 10
Khaos569

NIce one
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29.09.2010 - 09:36
CrypticMyth
Metal Scientist
Cool review - I shall check this out soon!
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"You're all the same, the lot of you, with your long hair and faggot clothes. Drugs, sex, every sort of filth. And you hate the police, don't you? You make it easy."
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