Band:	Owl
Album:	Owl
Style:	Experimental death metal
Release date:	March 07, 2011
A review by:	KwonVerge

01. Conquering The Kingdom Of Rain (Enter Her Holy Halls)
02. Lost In Vaults Underneath The Melting Mountain Of The Saints
03. The Daimonion Of Dying Summers Looming Through The Golden Mist Of Dreams
04. Spell Of The Ignis Fatuus That Leads To The Impalpable Altar Of Beasts
05. Threnodical Ritual At The Spectral Shores Of The Eternal Sunset

Set aside the death metal scene of sheer brutality and muscles ready to punch any part of your body any time with tones of testosterone making your veins explode out of pompous masculinity. Screw this, who said death metal can't be extreme and threatening at the same time through the atmosphere it evokes? Atmosphere? Yeah, right, you read correctly, Owl play some kind of atmospheric and at the same time primitive death metal with a devouring sound and a production thick and impure as underwater magma.

Apart from the aforementioned definitions, Christian Kolf, the figure behind Owl, embeds in the sound of the band ambient references that make their appearance during the end of the compositions. It's also omnipresent through the overall chaos. So, that's all? No, the ending song is a 30-minute magnum opus of ambiance relying upon keyboards and water effects. And here's the big challenge, either you drown with it or bury it so deep you'll never encounter again the threnody of the ritual at the spectral shores of the eternal sunset as the title indicates. With a bit of imagination and a clear (or fucked up?) mind you can achieve the visuals.

The cover artwork is utterly representative, it's the picture of a hostile fortress and the album gives you the impression as if it was recorded in its deepest dungeons in utter secrecy. There's an echoing sense in it anyway that strengthens the rotating fear that unfolds through mist and ivy. Every instrument partaking in this martyrdom of unfurling horror plays its part as a solo ornament of pain and at the same time all together work as one, crossing the threshold of sanity in unity. The vocals are volcanic, boiling grunts from the deepest core of the earth, foreboding the transcending chaos. All those echoes of torment turn to screams or unearthly recites whenever needed, but the most important aspect of them has to be the fact that Christian doesn't follow a specific formula, such abysmal disharmony could only be impulsive and in one-take. The drumming is the equivalent of impalement, violent, imposing and echoing and even when it's mid-tempo it still sounds ominous! As for the guitars, they evoke a claustrophobic scenery of asphyxiating emissions with their sinister "melodies" and chords, the soul-crushing riffing and the effects. All of them forge a massive, maniacal torrent that is not willing to ease its fury and strikes you down from waterfall to waterfall inside an everlasting, devastating orbit.

If you still require some references, the only ones that come to mind at the moment could be Esoteric and Disembowelment. Owl's self titled debut is here to imprison sanity in a self destructive cell with non-directional torque. If you ever heard an owl while wandering in the forest, it definitely didn't sound like this, a bulldozing near-death experience.

Hints n' Tips: Lock up yourself in your room, close the door and the windows so that the sound will get trapped inside, along with you, then you're ready for this sonic assault.