Band:	The Crevices Below
Album:	Below The Crevices
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	May 23, 2011
Guest review by:	Fearmeister

01. Below The Crevices
02. The Tombs Of Subterranea
03. A Grand Cavernous Awakening
04. Whispers Of Sorrow
05. Trapped In Suicidal Depths
06. Carrying The Cries Of The Lost

Subterranean black metal is not a term used very widely these days. In a genre saturated with albums that sing praises for forests and mountains, very few bands turn their attention to the world underneath the surface of the earth. Thankfully, we have Australia's Dis Pater of Midnight Odyssey to address this itch that needs scratching with his sole album for his short-lived side project The Crevices Below.

Despite the fact that this is a black metal musician doing a black metal side project, Dis Pater does an excellent job of making his two projects distinct from each other. While Midnight Odyssey has this soaring production that feels like the music is going straight to the stars, The Crevices Below has an echo like sound to its production, as if the music is bouncing off of unseen walls and ceilings which creates the subterranean atmosphere. Having been cave-diving myself, I feel that Dis Pater has done an excellent job of capturing both the beauty of the underground world and the sheer claustrophobia of being deep underground.

Musically, the riffs, drums and bass are all standard black metal, though the use of keypads and production, combined with the unique subject matter makes this album easily stick out. Vocals are mainly Burzum-esque shrieks mixed in with a few gothic cleans, while the lyrics deal with the story of the ruler of a subterranean empire slowly going insane.

All in all, this is a great album by an upcoming star in the underground black metal scene. I enjoyed this slightly less than the Midnight Odyssey debut though more from the fact of the sheer number of songs on that album than any fault for this one. Easily recommended for any fan of atmospheric black metal.