Bane are a Black Metal band from Serbia. This album consists of three chapters, namely Chaos, Darkness and Emptiness. The development of style makes this an interesting album and enables us to hear a good selection of what the band can do. On top of the nine tracks, there is a fast and furious cover of the old Dark Funeral track “The Dawn No More Rises”.
After a dark orchestral opening, “The True Insomnia” takes us into Dark Funeral territory. It’s fast, brutal, has a compelling rhythm and plenty of roars, growls and a slightly weak spoken part. The breaks and pace changes are excellent. We were promised chaos and we get it. “Pandemonium” continues the theme with copious fury and a hooky riff. The mood changes with “Lost Shadows” and its mellow, acoustic beginning. By “Abhorrence”, the change of style is yet more evident. It’s Black Metal but now of a more creepy and vampiric variety. The mid-paced guitar swings to and fro and altogether this track has a nasty feel. The highlight of this album for me was “Plague upon Yourself”. Harsh and threatening to begin with, its atmospheric heightens as it slows down and introduces a spoken section. There’s a wonderfully soulful acoustic section worthy of Opeth or April Ethereal, before it breaks into frightening chaos and evil laughter while maintaining the melodic sway. It’s brilliantly done. “Inherited Infection” is more traditional Death/Black territory, with a Marduk-style riff. Surprisingly, it drops into an acoustic section at the end. The “Emptiness” phase is evident in “The Haunting Presence”. With its slow Doom/Death approach, it’s like being subject to lingering death. “Dysthymia” is a sinister orchestral piece, in complete contrast to the murderous Dark Funeral cover which ends this impressive album.
Epic, atmospheric, furious, mellow – we see all sides of Bane on this album. Instead of separating the moods with separate sections, I’d rather that they were merged on individual tracks like “Plague upon Yourself” which captured the fire and feeling of which this band is capable. Technically Bane is a great band with excellent ideas and good a showcase as this is, I think they could mix it all up and produce a masterpiece of atmospheric Black Metal. “Chaos, Darkness and Emptiness” is a major stepping stone on the way to it.
http://www.myspace.com/baneband
http://www.myspace.com/gromrecords
