Album Review: Duende en la Penumbra – That Same Evergreen I Love So Well, Despite the Way Its Shadows Make Me Sad (Self Released)

The NYC duo of Duende en la Penumbra are a musical project which seeks to craft a bewitching sonic amalgamation of genres and influences such as black metal, forest folk, prog, mathcore, breakcore/glitchy electronic etc.

Proudly a trilingual group with our lyrics written in English, French and Spanish. Their debut full length album entitled ‘That Same Evergreen I Love So Well, Despite the Way Its Shadows Make Me Sad’ will be released on April 3rd 2020.

No one can say Duende en la Penumbra aren’t ambitious because they really are. That Same Evergreen I Love So Well, Despite the Way Its Shadows Make Me Sad is an ambitious record from a duo who are clearly looking to intrigue as much as excite.

They manage to do this with the very first track, Ventoux. A building eeriness leads into sci-fi style effects, super soft mellow singing and off-kilter guitar rhythm. It’s quite a lovely start.

Flowing perfectly into Metdominaja, the imagination begins to run wild but few would expect a mix of heady melody and absolutely savage black metal style vocals. It’s a grand showcase of the eclectic style that is riveted to this album.

Mellow and morose, we get Viajero Perdido a track that could be played over the anguish of lost loves. The howls of pain… this is pretty misery, in musical format.

Keeping the harshness blended with their self-stylised glitchy rhythm and melodic elements, we then get a set off oddities with Regarder le Lierre Vaincre la Pierre leading the charge. Backed up by the thrilling punch of A Library’s Bedlam and the melodramatic In Howling Woods, A Boy is Faced with an Oracle Destined to Fail Amidst Lucid Darkness.

This is an exhausting album; one that pulls you back and forth. Never quite sure just what might be around the corner. Every twist and turn down the gnarled path offers up more unique sounds and sights. The folkish assortment of blackness in Deserted Eschaton, the utterly transcendent and eeriness of Ghost of Deforestation, the nightmarish slow pace of Like He Who First Bore My Name, I Died of Sadness and the heavy gothic tones of Penumbra.

Exhausting but satisfying.

One last dreamy and sleepy effort seems to be the case with Like He Who First Bore My Name, I Died of Sadness. However, sharp jolts of blackened metal will stir most out of their slumber.

Duende en la Penumbra – That Same Evergreen I Love So Well, Despite the Way Its Shadows Make Me Sad Full Track Listing:

1. Ventoux
2. Metdominaja
3. Viajero Perdido
4. Regarder le Lierre Vaincre la Pierre
5. Whispering Trees
6. A Library’s Bedlam
7. In Howling Woods, A Boy is Faced With an Oracle Destined to Fail Amidst Lucid Darkness
8. Deserted Eschaton
9. Ghost of Deforestation
10. Like He Who First Bore My Name, I Died of Sadness
11. Penumbra
12. Ancestros Olvidados

Links

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