Year: 2020
Total Time: 48:08
Label: Napalm Records
KONVENT consist of four young ladies from Denmark and they released a demo recording in 2017 followed by their first full length record “Puritan Masochism” in 2020. The fact that they are all females shall not disorient us,neither the group aim at it. Their music can be described as slow, monolithic, primordial and mystagogic Doom/Death Metal the early 90’s era.
Most of the nine compositions of this album are moving and evolving around a main riff which mutate, reform and return to its original form. The way these riffs are molding in combination with the muddy atmosphere bring in my mind bands such as WINTER and, I dare to say, CELTIC FROST. The guitars by Sara Helena Norregaard are heavy, very heavy and slow, the growls by Rikke Emilie List are following the Doom/Death pattern and the rhythm section follows with its solidarity and the lack of fanfare and the pointless show of skill. One remarkable thing is that despite my effort I didn’t trace any guitar solo in the songs. The rhythm is mid tempo and there is a monotony in the air but it is not capable to make you get bored, on the contrary it helps you discovering details. The tracks don’t quite follow the Doom pattern since their duration fluctuates to five minutes , except the last one “Ropes Pt.I I” , which is a bit longer than seven minutes. Since we are talking about “Ropes”, these two songs is the most interesting part of this record with the alternations and the existence of melodies which don’t change the character of this work by the young Danish ladies.
KONVENT did a great job for a debut album. They manage to sound fresh despite the primordial sound and the low tempo, torturing almost mystagogic atmosphere with the help of the clean production. It would be very interesting in their next album to try to evolve on the theme and melodies of “Ropes”. This is something I would love to listen.
Rating: 7/10
Editor: Dimos Karadimos
Related Link: KONVENT – Facebook Page
