Artist: Kilte
Title: Absence
Type: EP
Label: Eisenwald Records

I know from experience that Flemish-speaking Belgians can be gloomy souls if they put their mind to it. Following in the footsteps of their compatriots Kludde and Wanhoop, Kilte put this quality good use on “Absence”, a 25 minute, 3 track depressive Black Metal production. The band don’t have anything new to say but manage to capture a different atmosphere each time. Each of them is melancholic, but for me the most impressive is the 10 minute “The True Beauty of Our Absence”. The gloom is compounded by a dark, mechanical riff, a feature which is a speciality of this band. After an eerie beginning, it turns into something akin to Italy’s Forgotten Tomb with the undercurrent of the wind sweeping across the Belgian flatlands and hissing vocals to enhance the experience. It’s hypnotic, certainly bleak and it’s no surprise that the rains come in at the end to evoke the experience of eternal suffering with weather to match. “Haar Laatse Traan” (“Her Last Tear”) is more internal in its feel. The track starts slowly and funereally, as the vocalist gasps through the gloom. The sense of sadness heightens before returning eventually to the original transfixing rhythm. The impression is that no progress is being made on this deep track, which has some elements of Burzum about it. Where the two previous tracks have given the clear sensation of suffering, “Eindeloos Verval” (“Endless Decay”) is calmer and conveys an air of resignation with its quiet guitar strains. It slows eventually to a melancholic dirge. Demo versions of “Haar Laatse Traan” and “Eindeloos Verval” follow. Although I could see that the modern version of “Haar Laatse Traan” is more defined in its movement and passages, I actually preferred the muddier and rawer demo version, which featured greater urgency but I guess less sensitivity. Hearing it again did help to imprint itself and its gloomy demeanour more than if it had come once and just gone away.

This work was never meant to fire up the listener, and it doesn’t. It’s deliberately gloomy but whilst each of the tracks is quite monotonous and the idea is conveyed that things don’t change very much, the depressive angle they take is different. “Absence” isn’t about excitement but depressive atmosphere, and Kilte manage to create that very well.

http://www.kilte.tk
http://www.myspace.com/eisenwald
http://www.eisenton.de