Band:	Terra Tenebrosa
Album:	The Tunnels
Style:	Ambient, Avantgarde metal
Release date:	March 04, 2011
Guest review by:	Desha

01. The Teranbos Prayer
02. Probing The Abyss
03. The Mourning Stars
04. The Arc Of Descent
05. Guiding The Mist / Terraforming
06. Through The Eyes Of The Maninkari
07. The Tunnels

Booo! Hey, scared you, didn't I? Surely you just witnessed the pinnacle of terror. Well, be prepared - we're going on an adventure! A spooooky adventure ~

Terra Tenebrosa plays a type of post-metal you sadly see nothing of these days (or ever, really, with an exception we'll look into shortly): very synth-heavy, buried and layered vocal passages, pounding, hypnotizing drums, the odd spoken word, and monotone sludge riffs. If that sounds familiar to you, then you're right: we've got an album that builds on the legacy of Enemy Of The Sun by the mighty Neurosis themselves. Terra Tenebrosa, however, mostly slow it way down (both riffs and drums), reduce the number of riffs and up the number of synths, add vocal effects, and dump an entire package of Blut Aus Nord-ketchup onto the whole thing.

The result is an eerie, mesmerizing, and intriguing version of post-metal. Sometimes we have the infernal riffs mid-era Amenra uses (compare "The Arc Of Descent" to "Am Kreuz"), sometimes we get techniques popularized in black metal and funeral doom (the "low power chord base overlaid with mid-range melody giving a creepy effect" we see on classics like Burzum's "Dunkelheit" or Disembowelment's "Excoriate" that have become a mainstay in their respective genres) on songs like "Through The Eyes Of The Maninkari" or "Probing The Abyss", sometimes Blut Aus Nord-style monotone riffing with a synth buildup ("The Mourning Stars", "Guiding The Mist/Terraforming").

And that's exactly what makes this album so great: it's intriguing. The fact that you can barely make out vocals at times and the atmosphere the compositions create make you want to know more. "Wait, what was that passage just now?" Pair that with the amazingly mysterious cover art, the band member names, and some back story on the whole thing, as well as sentences like "The human race shall evolve" ("The Teranbos Prayer") and repeated listens are a must. By that time, the catchy-as-fuck riffs are also stuck in your head. Probably the slow - sometimes Neurosis-style tribal, sometimes Blut Aus Nord-style artificial - drums as well.

This leads to the main takeaway here: The illusion of depth and the curiosity that builds up inside you are worth far more than any actual real experience you might have. Don't read interviews for this band, don't research stuff. And most importantly: don't watch music videos. It'll spoil the fun. What you come up with in your own head will always appeal to you more than what is actually there. Especially when talking about records like this, which are made for this kind of response.

Oh, and maybe don't listen to this stuff when you're out in the woods at night taking a walk with the dog. Or do, I'm not your boss.