Trist- Stiny

Artist: Trist
Album: Stiny
Label: Ars Magna Recordings

For many years now, bands and projects like Leviathan, Xasthur, Nortt and Bethlehem have been releasing albums that belong to a genre called suicidal black metal. These albums never were for the people only into black metal to look cool or fit in, this genre is only truely enjoyable by the ones who feel that life on this planet is not all it's cracked up to be. I find myself taking a lot of the releases labeleled suicidal black metal with a grain of salt. There have been so many bad releases over the years by bedroom projects that it's hard to put any faith into a lot of these albums. I had heard many good things about the Trist releases though so I was a bit interested when I got "Stiny" in the mail. "Stiny" was released by Trist back in 2006 on Ars Magna Recordings and it was their first full-length album since the duo of Trist and P. formed in the Czech Republic back in 2003. After listening to just the opening track Samota, I knew this was going to be a good album. Handling all instruments except drums is vocalist Trist, who some may know from the black metal band Life is Pain. The droning fuzz that exudes from Trist's guitar creates an atmosphere of depression and agony that is almost smothering at times while his shrieking vocal delivery only serves to intensify the torturous feelings that he is trying to convey. The bass isn't very noticeable which is normal for this style but one thing I did notice was how much better an actual drummer, who can play decently, sounds over a drum machine. By having them mixed in properly so you can hear them, P.s drumming set's off the rest of the music on "Stiny". There's nothing real flashy or impressive coming from his drumkit but the four songs on this album don't need them to be. It's just the fact that you don't hear shitty and fake sounding programmed drums anywhere on here that makes the music sound that much better. I would recommend this excellent album for any fans of Xasthur or suicidal black metal in general.