ATMAN – l’Assassi de Venus
- Posted on 12-02-2011
“l’Assassi de Venus” is the fourth full-length release from Catalan black metallers Atman. There are lots of good things on offer here. The music is dark and discordant, mixing brutal attack with repetitive mid-paced parts that envelop the listener in a black fog of melancholia and suffering.
The production is quite balanced, with all instruments having equal say, but it works well because it allows the more discordant nuances to be heard. At the same time, the guitars have just a touch of warmth that adds harmony to the mid-paced parts making them all the more hypnotic and effective.
All of the lyrics are in Catalan, so I have no idea about the quality of the lyrical content. On the whole, I’d imagine most who like modern-sounding BM would enjoy this album, but it would be one of those releases that you only take out once in a while, think “Wow that’s pretty good” and then put to the bottom of the playlist again.