Band:	Haar
Album:	Ouroboros
Style:	Atmospheric black metal, Progressive black metal
Release date:	August 2023

01. Intro (A Prelude To Benumbing Ruin)
02. The Anticipated Fist Of Gelid Trauma
03. A Boreal Tomb Has Shaped This Being
04. Refugia (Trial By Hostile Endurance)
05. Of Verglas & Vicissitude
06. A Bitter Assimilation
07. Ouroboros (The Recurrence Of Benumbing Ruin)

Before Haar bring their short-lived career to an end, they've made sure to leave their mark with the uncomfortable and unforgettable dissonant terror that is Ouroboros.

Haar are an atmospheric/progressive black metal band that formed in Edinburgh, UK, back in 2008. The band have had several line-up changes since their establishment fifteen years ago, but their final iteration consists of original members Hamish MacKintosh (drums), Guillaume Martin (guitars), and Gareth Cook (vocals), who are accompanied by Steve Shanks (bass) and Ross Oliver (guitars). Having been around now for more than a decade, Haar only have two full-length releases to their name (as well as several EPs), including full-length debut Wayward Ceremony from 2015, and now their latest, and in fact final, release Ouroboros. Yes, I did say this album is the final addition to what is a short discography for a band that have been around for some time, as they've made the unfortunate decision to disband this year. Now, I'm not going to cry about the disbanding of Haar, as bands disband all the time, It's just the fact that this band have had such a short-lived career, with not much to really show for their efforts. So, how has this band decided to go out on this final release? And is it a memorable and worthy send-off?

To start with, I'm going to say that Ouroboros is an uncomfortable listen, rather than an enjoyable one; there's certainly plenty going on here, and one can easily lose themselves in its structural madness and all-consuming densely atmospheric soundscapes. The word I'm going to say here is dissonance; think Deathspell Omega meets Ulcerate, and you'll get the idea of what I'm talking about. The instrumentation isn't what you'd call melodic; I imagine you won't be headbanging to some groovy beats here. Instead the guitar work is chaotic, but there's still method in its chaotic dissonant madness.

The several overlapping guitars have a lot to do with this; there's an ultra thick layering system in which the riffs and leads regularly overlap, and with help from Shanks' powerful bass work, this helps create a crushingly dense, almost apocalyptic soundscape. Now, onto the vocals, which for the most part are aggressive death growls, with occasional high-pitched blackened shrieks performed by Cook, where he sounds as if he's under constant distress and agony. The main striking element, however, isn't the guitar work, the bass, or the vocals that stand out; it is in fact the drumming that stands out most (for me at least), as MacKintosh shows fine form, start to finish, from his complex rhythmic beats to his manic drum rolls.

There are several moments throughout the seven tracks that may be worth highlighting, but one song in particular stands out from the rest, that being "Of Verglas & Vicissitude". This is the lengthiest track on the as album, coming in at just over the ten-minute mark, and is perhaps the most complex, experimental, and progressive song on the album. It features plenty of rhythm and tempo changes throughout, from furious to soft, mid-to-slow, and going beyond frantic towards the end. The vox also take an irregular approach, as a synth/cyber-like style is brought in, which goes along with the beastly gnarly growls and devastating shouts. The track also introduces haunting softer vocals to go with the softer passages. Those haunting vocals, however, come back to haunt you all the more on the closing title track, where you're also introduced to occult-like chants; the growls go up a level in intensity also, giving you the feeling that an evil demonic being is being exorcised back to the depths of hell, from whence it came.

I must warn you, Ouroboros may not be the easiest listening experience (for most listeners anyway), but what Haar achieve here is not exactly for the faint-hearted. From the devilishly blackened "A Bitter Assimilation" to the experimental and progressive "Ouroboros (The Recurrence Of Benumbing Ruin)", Haar give us a clear statement that they intend to go out with full force.