<p>This review was supposed to go up a few weeks ago when I was rather depressed with personal stuff, but then I decided to wait and see how <i>Blestem</i> would feel under less dire circumstances. The album is the sole (to date anyway) release by <b>Colosus</b>, an entity one-manned by Khrud, also in <b>Eye of Solitude</b> and <b>Sidious</b>.</p>
<p><i>Blestem</i> would be some of the most depressive bleak music you will ever hear. From there you can either call it “one-note” dreary and dismiss, or accept its bleakness unconditionally. When it catches you at the right moment it could either help, in a therapeutic sort of way, or further plunge you into oblivion. The album can be called atmospheric black metal but it treads much closer to closeted <b>Xasthur</b> explorations than to full-bodied depressive black metal like, say, <b>Pestilential Shadows</b>. The goal here is to pile on, one drab and grey soundscape at a time, whether it is icy keyboards enveloping melody (<b>ColdWorld<b> cover of <i>Red Snow</i>), muddy desperation drags (<i>La Apus</i>, <i>Mormant</i>), which either go into hollow voids or grief explosions accentuated by horrendous howling vocals (<i>La Apus</i>). <i>Blestem</i> is full of emptiness, figuratively and literally, as many a song here stare into the aforementioned emptiness, performing some mysterious quiet rituals along the way. Songs like <i>Desertaciune</i> in a way prepare you for what's to come, freezing you out until you are numb inside. Title track does that too, plus adds minimalistic exaltation of pain. The melodies on <i>Blestem</i> are mostly standard fare (<i>Intuneric</i>, <i>Mormant</i>), repeating in endless loops (<i>Red Snow</i>), supported by tepid blasting or steady double bass, all sound levels suppressed to inexplicably low levels.</p> <p>There is a modicum of fighting spirit here (<i>Dorinta</i>), and after a few tracks you know exactly where everything will end up, at the agonizing minimalistic plateau, but you still float along the plane abstracted from reality.</p>
<p>Not an album needed to be described in wordy details, you will have to feel <i>Blestem</i> to make it the most effective. Prepare for a descent, suffering and being ready to hang it all up.</p>
