Umbra Nihil - The Borderland Rituals
This album caught me as a surprise, really. Because, admit it, Umbra Nihil used to suck. Their side of the split with Aarni was a disaster – a bunch of half-done demos, a whooping display of MIDI drums, bad vocals, lack of composition. 2005′s Gnoia was an improvement. At least the songs were more or less finished on it, not just a mass of raw ideas and sketches. Instrumentation became more creative, sound and recording quality turned out to be alright. But still, it’s a lame effort. The only, err, ‘selling point’ on Gnoia is “The Dreams in the Witch-house”, and more precisely, the movement in the middle, with the chanting, solos, and general sluggish progginess.
Then, BANG! the raw mix of “Welcome to the Borderland” appeared on their myspace and I was quite surprised by it… Gone were the awful death-doom-wannabe allures, the awful guitar tone. No more of that pitch-shifted shite growl. Their place was taken over by the almighty 70′s. And you can feel the Umbra Nihilists just love prog. The whole Borderland Rituals album consists of deconstruction, quotes, stylizations… plus some great, memorable moments that really get stuck in your head. E.g. th chorus in “Open the Gate”. The lyrics and the singing are cheesy and tounge-in-cheek.
Children of the mountain
in their sacred grove
Practice ancient magic
to wake up their god…
Come on, this is awesome!
So yeah, I can’t stress enough how happy I am with this new direction Umbra Nihil have taken with The Borderland Rituals. Earlier the only reason I listened to them was their link to Aarni… Yes, I admit it. Yes, sometimes I only give several chances to certain bands because they are connected to another in someway or another. Umbra Nihil have become an individual entity in my eyes. Good job pleasing me. You may live. Now go and release more macrocosmic prog-doom.
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