One Master - The Quiet Eye Of Eternity
Self-released
Black Metal
5 songs (35:39)
Release year: 2009
One Master
Reviewed by Goat

Rebelling against the ignoble confines of their Bostonian home, four-piece One Master wield an occult attack as straightforward and purist as Darkthrone were back in 1993. The five tracks here are more or less indistinguishable for the first few listens; lengthy, raw, dark, pounding bursts of traditional Black Metal, nothing more, nothing less. As non-traditional as the member’s hometown, as outlandish as it is to have a female drummer in these days, the music they create is far from the ‘hipster’ style that the underground hates so much.

As mentioned, this takes time before it stops sounding all the same, but once you’ve given The Quiet Eye Of Eternity a chance to sink in a little, it becomes clear that there’s much to praise. The band’s attack is unified, every member working together to help create the wall of noise – they’ve clearly been practising, too, as there’s little to criticise in terms of musicianship. Each guitar riff sounds just as you’d expect, yet when given the time that each of the lengthy tracks allows, the music truly shines, especially the melancholic dirge of closing ten-minuter Field Of Ruins, which is somewhere between Judas Iscariot and Drudkh and is undoubtedly the album highlight.

More elements come out with further listens... the background keyboards on opening blast Infinite Void are perfectly judged, for example, merging with the other instruments to create the desired epic effect. The music is always subtle, though, really taking time to be coaxed out of its dark lair; patience is needed, but so is familiarity with the album, so you can try and fathom its surprisingly complex depths.

I’ve given The Quiet Eye Of Eternity a good few listens now, and whilst it isn’t, sadly, a masterpiece, it is a good album. Carefully crafted, the problem is with the amount of time it takes to reveal its intelligence, and whilst the target audience are sure to enjoy it, if you’re not looking for something this traditional then the subtleties will go right over your head.

MySpace
Killing Songs :
Infinite Void, Field Of Ruins
Goat quoted 72 / 100
0 readers voted
Average:
 0
You did not vote yet.
Vote now

There are 0 replies to this review. Last one on Mon Aug 24, 2009 6:34 pm
View and Post comments