When a one-man atmospheric black metal band has a noose hanging from its logo you don’t expect it to live past the first recording, let alone two: "Lost In Mind" (2018) and "Unreachable" (2019). Yet the 22 year old multiinstrumentalist vocalist known only by the mysterious name Rivanectomy persisted for not just one more record, this here, "Shine In Purity" (2020) but even before Flowing Downward reissued it last April he had followed it with an EP, "Hope" while smartly replacing the noose with a rose. Is that good marketing or a change of heart? If these magnifiscent 7 compositions are any indication the latter seems more the case.

The album is not just superbly written, arranged and powerfully produced with meticulous attention to detail, it is simply pure magic, or I prefer to say that it strikes you with a power that leaves no unstone heart unmoved with compassion for the author. Take the favorite "Arunika", replete with gorgeous melody I am not entirely sure is guitar or keyboard followed by stunning female vocals as if in an ultimate human tribute to love itself, bathed in atmosphere seemingly made in heaven itself, again with that lovely female choir, as it fleetingly departs fading away like the very days of our lives, or the title track bathing you in the unquenchable fire only to recede in an unnerving beautiful stillness from which the sufferer returns with a thunderous conclusion mimicking total unraveling of a man gone insane from the pain of living or so I perceive, take "Pure", gentle yet so effortlessly moving strumming and if tears are not flowing down your cheeks yet regardless of your sex you’re probably on Prozac or Zoloft which is why the ensuying epic power likely won’t grab you as hard but as for me I am floating on a cloud with no regard for gravity, the rasp somehow beautifying the experience instead of tempering it, while the melodies are simply breathtaking, and, aware of how prolonged exposure to such sensual orgasm could very well stop your heart for good, Soulless briefly transitions peacefully before returning even stronger, for a truly "Pure" plateau tastefully phased out in a striking counterpoint. We are merely on the 3rd track, but the remaining cuts repeat that acoustic, atmospheric journey to heavy almost hateful doom, be it "The Silent Enigma" Anathema melodiscism of "Remember" or the gloomy austere keys reminiscent of Fear Factory’s "Timelessness" or the sadly defunct Mar De Grieses.

Only one thing keeps "Shine In Purity" from attaining the perfect score, namely, "I See the Light in Your Eyes" where percussively anticipating another sonic volcanic eruption which never comes but, instead counterbalances the horrific delight of the first 3 tracks. Otherwise, this is a near-perfect soundtrack for all those souls who daily shine in purity while desperately grasping for anything to make life worth living no matter the cost.

https://soullessdsbm.bandcamp.com/