London-based black metal quartet Unmother return with their new full-length album, State Dependent Memory on February 20 with physical editions available on vinyl and cassette via Fiadh Productions. But you can hear the whole thing with us now!
Formed in 2019 by members of Those Damn Thieves, Formless Body, and Dothe, Unmother have steadily carved out a distinct identity within the U.K. underground. Their sound fuses traditional black metal with post-metal through experimental structures, channeling bleak, urban atmospheres.
State Dependent Memory was mixed in London by Angeliki Mourgela and mastered by Roland Rodas at Cavern of Echoes Studio. As with their debut, drum performances were recorded by Krzysztof Klingbein, ensuring continuity amid the band’s evolving sound.
“We wanted State Dependent Memory to reflect the isolation a large metropolis can impose on you, at times torturing, at times redeeming. This was our effort to try and capture the feeling of being lost inside a vast, busy, and suffocating urban landscape,” say the band.
“Some moments reflect how we experience this environment overall: the constant tension of ‘My Armor,’ the monotonically repeated guitar theme of ‘Bear Hug,’ the eerie synths of ‘Modern Dystopia.’ Others are more personal and introspective, like the experimental approach of the title track and the cover of ‘Attiki–Viktoria’ (a tribute to central Athens), while ‘Magda’ stems from experiencing horrific events through the lens of living in a big city and references the mother of murdered musician and antifascist Pavlos Fyssas in 2013.
The post Album Premiere: Unmother – <i>State Dependent Memory</i> appeared first on Decibel Magazine.
For the second review in a row, I heard about a band via skimming YouTube, heard something I liked, and tracked down their promo. I’m used to working this from the other direction, but when the almighty algorithm gives, one must take and be thankful. Domhain is an atmospheric post-black metal band from Northern Ireland, and In Perfect Stillness is their debut full-length. With an emotionally charged sound and style, Domhain touches on the past works of Darkest Era, Primordial, and Agalloch while utilizing cellos and haunting female vocals to punctuate the melancholic, often grim moods they wallow in. Over the album’s runtime, they do a lot of things very well and a few things spectacularly. What they do best is keep me locked in, listening raptly to the ebb and flow of their compositions. There’s something here, and that something has teeth.