Ever since Ulver released their 2nd album Kveldssanger (Twilight Songs) in 1996 the rule book on what is and is not Black Metal has been thrown out the window. While many of us enjoy raw, brutal black metal 90% of the time, some of us like to chill out every now and then and special acts like Echtra, serve that purpose perfectly.
Echtra (also the guitarist in ritualistic acoustic folk band Fearthainne ) builds slow eirrey
soundscapes perfect for kicking back and decompressing in your cabin deep in the woods, in fact I am pretty sure that Echtra is from the Pacific North West. You definitely get the feeling listening to these 2, 20+ minute atmospheric musical pieces that you are traipsing through a deep green forest somewhere in the PNW.
I think its actually pretty hard to be able to play minimalist ethereal pieces like these and make sure that they are not boring to the listener. On both of these two pieces Echtra manages to maintain the listeners attention but slowly building and developing on musical themes
One of the elements that creates good black metal whether raw and aggressive or reflective like Echtra is the atmosphere or feeling that the music gives the listener and unless this is your first rodeo and your musical tastes have not developed past Darkthrone’s Transylvanian Hunger” then you could do yourself no wrong but sitting back for an hour and giving this album your full concentration.
I like this album, I like it a lot – check it out it comes out on Temple of Torturous this Friday (November 23rd) The physical release includes a 12″ LP with specific analogue mastering, plus a DVD disc containing the original live performance with digitally mastered audio track.
You can order a copy here