Sunvher - Arovmia - review
Sunvher - Arovmia - review
Tracklist
01. 0615231002. Gone Eyes
03. Anxiolytic Red Rivers
04. Flesh & Wires
05. Digital Madness
06. The End Of Myself
07. Encrypted Psyche
08. The Fireflies
A review by
musclassia April 21, 2025
That’s what the case is with Arovmia, which was introduced in a Bandcamp message I received as said ‘musical continuation’ of A Flourishing Fall In A Grain Of Sand. Those who recognize that album title will know it was released by progressive stoner metal act Humanotone, the one-man project of Jorge Cisternas; Cisternas has tended to alternate working on music for Humanotone and his other solo project Sunvher, but the two fall far apart from one another on the musical spectrum. Sunvher is best described as a blackgaze or post-black metal endeavour, so while it shares the warmth that Cisternas (who goes by the J.C. moniker when performing as Sunvher) imbues into the music of Humanotone, that warmth materializes in a very distinct form.
The most obvious similarity between the two releases is the presence of J.C.’s warm and inviting (if slightly rough) lower-register clean singing, which during the less frenetic portions of Arovmia reminds me a bit of Arctic Sleep. However, those clean vocals find themselves alternating with the harsher black metal screams more typically associated with blackgaze across the duration of the album. All vocals are performed by J.C., as well as all instruments, aside from a guest guitar appearance from Harakiri For The Sky’s M.S. on “Digital Madness” (J.C. actually appeared on that band’s own 2025 release Scorched Earth, forming a nice little blackgaze exchange project), and some of J.C.’s instrumental fingerprints from Humanotone do also occasionally seem detectable in the melodies across Arovmia.
Because Arovmia is a very melodic album, arguably even by blackgaze standards; that’s not to say that the instrumentation is necessarily light for the genre, as there’s plenty of blasting, and the tempo is regularly on the fast side, but the guitars feel very direct with the melodies carried by the riffs and leads across most songs. This approach is established promptly on the record’s first full song, “Gone Eyes”; it launches with dazzling guitar tremolo that morphs into shredding, and after lulling listeners into a false sense of security in its slower clean-sung verse, it unleashes chunky riffs, blast beats, and captivating guitar lead lines.
The album’s longest song, “Anxiolytic Red Rivers”, comes right afterwards, and opens in classic blackgaze fashion with soaring tremolo melodies combined with blasts. The warmth of the mix combined with the persistently melodic guitar leads makes the music feel so accessible and inviting in spite of the presence of extreme metal elements. While the track’s first half is fairly relentless in its approach, the second half is a first meaningful chance for Arovmia to demonstrate its dynamic range, slowing and calming everything down for tender acoustic and clean guitar as a preamble to a truly evocative climax to the track. Certainly, I can’t imagine there’ll be many better songs than “Anxiolytic Red Rivers” released in the genre this year (at least by bands not called Deafheaven).
The Harakiri For The Sky collaboration, “Digital Madness”, offers a little bit more variety; from what I can see, no guest vocalists are credited on the album, but the delivery of the clean vocals in the verse has a slightly different timbre to most of J.C.’s other clean singing, particularly when it’s sticking to deeper pitches, and it works quite well in tandem with the guitar harmonies and crunchier riffs. The softer passage later in the song with the guitar solo is also a nice treat; overall, “Digital Madness” is probably one of the stronger features on the tracklist.
I do think Arovmia slightly loses its way in moments after this song; I like both portions of the track , but the blast-heavy first half of “The End Of Myself” and the piano-driven quiet passage it abruptly transitions into do feel a bit incongruent with one another, while I could do without the electronics in the opening minutes of “Encrypted Psyche”. Nevertheless, having already wowed quite a few listeners with A Flourishing Fall In A Grain Of Sand, J.C. has shown himself to be a dab hand at a completely different style of metal with Sunvher’s new record.
Written on 21.04.2025 by
Written on 21.04.2025 by
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