Many black metal bands utilize elements of dark ambient in their music, either as intros, by making entire dark ambient songs among black metal ones or by direct incorporation of ambience into the music to create an atmosphere. While black metal by its sheer nature already have lots of atmospheric tendencies, this feel can be emphasized by the use of ambient elements.
The Ukranian one-man black metal band Moloch sets the tone from the first track, which serves as an intro and mindsetter for the rest of the album. "Illusionen Eines Verlorenen Lebens" is in excess of 50 minutes of depressive black metal with a slew of apathy-ridden tracks of atmospheric nature. The tortured vocal efforts of Pr. Sergiy Fjordsson goes hand in hand with the ambient characteristics and the drony and heavily distorted guitars.
The 8-track album emanates a definite aura of cold desolation and is more or less the soundtrack to how I imagine a cold winter in Ukraine. As with most bands in the genre Moloch presents itself with repetitive songwriting, and while this may sound like a bad thing I've always seen it as a means to create the desired feeling with the listener.
There is one thing that bothers me with Illusionen Eines Verlorenen Lebens and many modern black metal bands in general - The drums. It's a damn shame that so many one-man black metal bands use drummachines or heavily sampled drums. It takes away a lot of the atmosphere and feeling, which I feel are essential to music that seeks to invoke those kinds of feelings with the listener.
All in all I'd say Moloch, who is incredibly productive by the way, having recorded more than 70 releases since its creation in 2002, is a fine example of depressive black metal with a boatload of dark ambient elements. Fans of Paysage d'Hiver and Wedard must check out this band. Afterall the drumsound shouldn't have that much of a say on the overall score of the album, but it is something that slightly lessens my oppinion of it. 8/10 guitars.
Tracklist:
1. Illusion des Winters
2. Ein düsterer Winter kommt I
3. Ein düsterer Winter kommt II
4. Dissonanz Tropfen eines glühenden Schmerzes
5. Weg von dieser Welt voller Traurigkeit
6. Unsichtbarer Faden des Lebens
7. Illusionen eines verlorenen Lebens
8. Abgrund meines Wesens
MOLOCH official website
Glorious North Productions official website
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