Kerbenok – O
Northern Silence Productions – 28 November 2008
By Simon Brand
It takes a lot to keep a listener interested in an album boasting a length of 70 minutes. To carry this out convincingly, the key is variety, and this is definitely something that
Kerbenok understand
and put into practice.
O is an ever-changing beast, kicking off with some musique concrète influenced samples with a...vibraphone? Due to the release being tagged as “Black/Pagan Metal” on the back of the CD, wondered if I was listening to the right album, but my worries were soon cut out when the tremolo-picked guitars and blast-beats shot in.
Most of the music is a sort of mid/low-tempo atmospheric black metal fare, with some apparent doom influence.
Kerbenok vary this base sound in every way that they can in this release, speeding it up to a more standard black metal sound, descending into ambient territory and phasing into acoustic folk-influenced sections. These changes keep the listener on their toes and keeps the album fresh throughout.
The band is made up of only two members, sharing vocal performances; one in charge of harsh, the other clean. The harsh vocalist (known as simply Stefan) also takes on guitars and bass, while Christopher Duis also plays drums.
Christopher's drumming on this album is very inspired; even when he's playing blast beats, he varies cymbal hits to keep his playing interesting. All of his other rhythms are equally creative, flowing in and out of each other and complimenting the music perfectly.
The harsh vocals here are as expected really, nothing too special, but they get the job done. Clean vocals are done in a crooning style, reminiscent of
Ved Buens Ende (obviously one of the main influences for the band) and a female vocalist also guest stars, contributing a beautiful offset to the screeches.
Stephan's guitar- and bass-work makes use of various ideas and techniques, playing doom-styled riffs, black-metal tremolo-picking and fingerstyle acoustic. He experiments with dissonance a fair amount as well, creating a larger contrast between the light and dark parts of the album.
Various other instruments are played by guest musicians; a cello is heard, tablas are used for extra percussion variation...I won't go into each instrument, but needless to say, they all contribute to the overall sound and don't come off as gimmicky.
I went into listening to this album thinking I would like it, I came out loving it. If you are a fan of
Ved Buens Ende or want to see another take on the black metal formula, I whole heartedly recommend that you check out what
Kerbenok can do with 70 minutes of your time.
Official Kerbenok Website
Official Kerbenok Myspace
Official Northern Silence Productions Website
