etsy

Friday, November 28, 2008

Weird Fate / Membaris - Conspiracy split CD

Its easy enough for me to say that this split is noteworthy because it is a lot better than bad black metal.  Though that wouldnt really be fair, its strength lies somewhere between that truth and the fact that some fairly remarkable German black metal can be found on this release.  Coming straight at you with a most vaguely unmenacing moniker, Weird Fate's music reminds me a lot of Lunar Aurora's "Weltenganger" in that the guitar work is intricately played but vastly written.  Some similarities could also be drawn to the mighty Nightbringer of the U.S.A.  Weird Fate's modus operandi runs the gamut anywhere from a somewhat dry "violent" nature to a more developed and mature atmospheric melodicism.  They do so rather fluently, but this band really shows their novice tendencies when they do the somewhat redundant violent stuff, which is where I tend to lose attention.  The production on this is top notch and I feel it does a great justice to the bands ability to harness the power of black metal and convey their emotion and atmospheric strength vividly.  Aside from a few rather long winded passages and the occasional non-metal meanderings (see: fruity piano parts, exhaustively synth laden dirges, frolicky acoustic interludes) This stuff is realy good. Weird Fate are great at playing their instruments and with any luck they will be a band to keep an ear on quite soon.  
Membaris have a somewhat similar demeanor as Weird Fate but have a way more speedy galloping tempo to their stuff.  Im finding their half of the split to be more on the forgettable side because I've heard heaps of bands playing in this fashion.  Its all decent but only as good as the rest of it.  The riffing is a lot less musical, the vocals are a barely even a noticeable element, and the drumming is predictable.  This sort of reminds me of Orcustus.

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