Year: 2020
Total Time: 38:34
Label: Aleister Records
We use to imagine Black Metal (in any form) combined with icy forests somewhere in the European or American north. With snow, cold that fits perfectly with the ice that seems to spread through listening to an album of the genre. When we hear something without knowing its origin, its discovery sometimes surprises us. The same goes for Mexicans AN OCEAN OF LIGHT. One might not expect from a country as hot, something as icy and evocative as their new album “Vestigios De Melancolía”.
“Vestigios De Melancolía” is the second complete album of AN OCEAN OF LIGHT, successor to “Sueños De Un Vida Vacidaa” of 2017, when the band started its journey. Its duration is short, only about 39 minutes and consists of six compositions, two of which are instrumental. In the other four songs, the lyrics are in Mexican, which adds a special note to the result. What they are dealing with is the exploration of the human interior, melancholy and sadness, invested with music that, although characterized as atmospheric Black Metal, has a lot of Post-Black elements. In the instrumental songs of the album, the prevailing element is that of the Post-Rock sound. Particularly melodic passages in all the tracks, with a very atmospheric introduction, outbursts in various parts of the album and guitar parts in others, that we would not say they refer exactly to classic black metal melodies, but to more Heavy Metal branches of the genre.
The cover of the album, although distorted, seems to be part of a work by the great El Greco, thus giving a Greek note to the whole project of AN OCEAN OF LIGHT.
Overall, we would say that we have a release that tries to mix different sub-genres within its six songs, with a general success in this endeavor. An interesting work from the other side of the Atlantic, from a new band, which shows a willingness to experiment and a willingness to present something that will make them differ. Maybe in the future they will occupy the minds of more and more people.
Rating: 7/10
Editor: Fanouris Exintavelonis
Related Link: AN OCEAN OF LIGHT – Bandcamp Page
