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Existence Is No More (2017) is an EP release by one man black metal act Autumn Grave. Hailing from the United States the sole member is one Troy, also of Black Blood Stigmata and Path of Damnation. Existence Is No More is his third Autumn Grave release after a 2014 demo and the EP Forsaken by the Gods (2016).
Troy self-styles the music of Autumn Grave as 'Grim Black Metal with depressive Classical Acoustic Guitar'. That sounded quite intriguing to me, so I decided to check the project out. However I'm disappointed to find that, at least in regard to Existence Is No More (which is my first experience with the artist), that this release spectacularly fails to deliver on that description.
Existence Is No More is a five track EP and out of the five the closest Autumn Grave comes to what the above description led me to expect was the fifth and final song Insurrection Against the Goddess. I know that no music you haven't heard before sounds quite like what you have in your head beforehand, but the issue for me here is that throughout most of the release the whole 'depressive classical guitar' thing just isn't there. Or if it is it must be so much in the background that I'm simply not picking up on its presence within the lo-fi black metal production. I wouldn't say that the actual black metal here sounds especially grim either. It's simply a very generic release that seems to plod along for about half an hour and is topped with some pretty abysmal growls. There are some decent moments to be had, but they are few and far between.
Autumn Grave has a cool concept for Troy's music. It just needs to be better executed that what Existence Is No More ultimately delivers. Black metal bands prove all the time that you can do pretty anything you want within the genre and Troy's 'Grim Black Metal with depressive Classical Acoustic Guitar' spiel is something I hadn't heard yet. I still haven't with this EP, but I want to. If Autumn Grave can get it right then sign me right up.