While we live in an age of blurred genre lines, often by placing “post” in front of them, black metal has spawned more variations than most. Gone are the days of the genre being about corpse paint, church burnings, and albums with production values that resemble the recording of a wasp trapped in a tin can. There will always be those that wish to remain true to the Norwegian forefathers, but the transformation of black metal into something more expansive has rejuvenated a once cult-like movement, even if it does anger the purists.
The latest band to take it to the next level is Canada’s Unreqvited. Shrouded in mystery, with little information other than driving force, Willow Vale, cropping up on the Internet, Unreqvited have taken the depressive black metal sound, combined it with soaring post-rock and brooding atmospherics for their debut album, ‘Disquiet’.
From the waltzing lead that opens up ‘Birth’, a feeling of sorrow becomes you. It makes the hairs on your arms stand up, building up to the point of overwhelming sadness before triumphant guitars burst forth out of the ether. It is a pattern that is followed throughout ‘Disquiet’. It lures you in, brings you to your lowest ebb, before exploding into life at every turn.
The hail of frantic riffs and blistering blast beats provide the perfect canvas for painful, agonising, and nihilistic vocals. Regardless of being lyrically inaudible, the point of ‘Disquiet’ is not to sing along, but to feel its creators’ despair. The harrowing shrieks of the album’s title track cut to your very core and give an extra layer to the loaded instrumentation of the composition.
However, ‘Disquiet’ is not completely bleak. Each track is filled with a variety of textured layers to make it inviting and uplifting. Melodious, major-key piano leads pave the way for bright guitar passages as ‘Maydena’ blooms and decays. It makes the symphonic ending of ‘Death’ seem less of a shock in an accomplished debut filled with surprising twists.
Unreqvited may not be the first band to do this style of atmospheric black metal, and have clearly studied the work of their peers. They undeniably owe a debt of gratitude to Ghost Bath, Coldworld, and Alcest, but carry enough weight to stand out on their own, rather than just be a carbon copy of anyone else. They have added another page to the blueprint with ‘Disquiet’ and, as mournful as it is, Unreqvited have shown the beauty that can be found in modern black metal.
GLEN BUSHELL