Între Două Lumi

Syn Ze Şase Tri’s founding members are Corb and Spin, two of the musicians that contributed to Negură Bunget’s post-Sol Faur and Hupogrammos release of last year, Vîrstele Pămîntului. Seems like they did a good job there in high-pressure circumstances, but here they are with the first proper release of their own act. It has to be said, if you are hoping for an enigmatic, mystical journey though the wondrous spiritual forests of ancestral Dacia, accompanied by woad-encrusted warriors and wish-granting fauns (or something) you may be disappointed. Unless, that is, you also really love Dimmu Borgir.

For Între Două Lumi is essentially symphonic black metal, albeit a variant which is encouraged to intermingle with the distinctive elements of their more celebrated compatriots. And for sure, the atmospheric introduction (howling wolves sound effects, distant tribal drumming and ominous Romanian-language whispering) does some justice to the Negură Bunget comparison touted in the press release. But first proper track Ziua Din Urma enters with the kind of haunted-house synth-string arpeggios and ghost train chromatic black metal riffs that frankly leave me rather cold. That said, in amongst the overblown keyboard interludes there are moments of intriguing fusion. Fauritorul Lumii, for example, features some engagingly hooky lead guitar lines that are reminiscent of some of the more metallic ideas on Vîrstele Pămîntului. Such moments are fairly rare, though.

The album is certainly a capable one, with its chunky, synth-augmented blasting generating some power, and with the pyrotechnics occasionally being wheeled out in the form of rapidfire guitar and string unison lines. See Calea Fara de Sfirsit, which allows melodic colour to gleam amongst its crunching, militaristic riffs, including a well-worked lead solo. And Spirit Etern works extremely well, initially at least; an up-tempo, snarling rush of tight, almost death metal riffing, which is then inappropriately sprinkled with magical fairydust by the keyboards.

Ultimately it suffers from all the things symphonic black metal suffers from. At its worst it feels overblown and inauthentic and I wish the ideas the band members brought to Negură Bunget’s latest would be given more space to flourish. This is not to say, however, that those who have more time for the genre than I will not find moments of exotic intrigue in Între Două Lumi.