siLLy puPPy
ADABROC is the one-man atmospheric black metal project of Dòmhnall Alasdair MacIlleMhoire from Isle of Lewis in northern Scotland but now resides in Manchester, England. Beginning in 2010, ADABROC has released a series of EPs with each one becoming incrementally a tiny bit longer but this debut DREAMLANDS is more like a single than an EP because it consists of one title track that is a whopping 10 minutes and 40 minutes. Considering all these releases are digital only it really doesn’t matter what length a so-called EP or album is any longer.
For atmospheric black metal, this one is fortified with quickened tempos, caustic black metal buzzsaw guitar distortion, blastbeats and raging raspy vocals that sound more like death metal growls for the most part. The atmospheric part of the equation comes from a the keyboard parts that give the rampaging track a bit of diversity outside of the black metal rage-a-thon. This one is pretty much a procession of frenetic riffs in standard second wave black metal form and doesn’t really deviate too much with only a few guitar licks on the higher register interrupting the regularly scheduled program.
For a beginning EP, this one is pretty generic as this style of atmospheric black metal had been played out at least 15 years earlier but nothing about it is downright bad either. The up side is that the musicianship is top notch, more in the vein of Dissection than Darkthrone but the lack of creativity leaves a rather monotonous soundscape matching the rather homogenous nature of the cover art. This is hardly something to get excited about and even though later releases are longer and feature more tracks, this one certainly doesn’t invite a further exploration of this Scottish black metal attack which abruptly ended in 2014 with no releases and no full-length album to follow.