GRIMOIRE — A Requiem for the Light (review)

GRIMOIRE — A Requiem for the Light album cover

Album · 1996 · Symphonic Black Metal

4/5 · 2014-03-14
Wilytank

Hey, guys; look what I found! An extremely obscure black metal band that only released one full-length album before splitting!

Even though there are plenty of these albums around the world over the many years, I have to admit that discovering a black metal full-length with very little publicity is still something of a treat for me. The fact that very few people know of one of these bands creates a sort of childish "I know something you don't know!" feeling for me. Doesn't matter if the band's really good, the feeling is still there (though if they're really shitty, the feeling disappears quick). Today's example is Grimoire from Israel whose only real ties to other bands are their drummer who is currently in The Bishop of Hexen and their keyboard player who spent some time with Orphaned Land and some other bands. Their sole album A Requiem for the Light depicts a silhouette of a guy with a big stick and a giant pony tail jumping on the sun for their album art, which is really weird.

As for the actual music, Grimoire play atmospheric black metal kinda like early Dimmu Borgir or Ancient Wisdom. The low-fi production is there but doesn't sound totally raw, and it suits the music's moderately mournful fantasy atmosphere well. What also helps the atmosphere is the keyboards which are really prominent and really well done, probably the highlight of the album. They don't play every minute of the album, but they fit into the music so well. The opening track "A Requiem for the Light" demonstrates how the keys are used throughout the rest of the album; they don't overpower the guitar and bass, but provide a nice additional layer of music and occasionally create some really beautiful passages like the outro of "At Dark". There's even a nice sounding Mortiis-esque ambient interlude called "Nevuath Ha Tom" where they really show off.

The stringed instruments are also well done. The guitar riffs contain a fair amount of variation and the bass parts are audible and follow a nice groove to support the guitar, sometimes even sticking out more than the guitar as hinted in "In the Darkwoods Sovereignity". The drums are also well played and sound nice throughout the album. All the instruments are mixed together nicely to make a really immersive atmosphere. Even the vocals sound nice in here since their delivery is quite diverse with the traditional black metal screams mixed with spoken words, growls, and some (admitedly weaker sounding) clean vocal passages throughout the album. With all the elements together, A Requiem for the Light creates a nice sunset atmosphere kinda like on the cover art minus the jumping guy.

It may not be the best black metal out there, but A Requiem for the Light is a fine gem of an album that is worth seeking out. Definitely an interesting find from Israel if I do say so myself. So, you underground loving black metal fans: have a field day with this, because one last childish thing I like about finding an album with very little publicity is that I can review it and have that smug feeling of being the one to spread the word about

(86/100)