ARS DIAVOLI — The Absence of Light (review)

ARS DIAVOLI — The Absence of Light album cover Demo · 2006 · Depressive Black Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
2.5/5 ·
Vehemency
The Absence of Light is the first demo by this Portugalian black metal act Ars Diavoli. The key word here is distortion. Production-wise The Absence of Light is very raw, being almost like a wall of white noise where you can still decipher the instruments easily. The sound is massive.

The three black metal songs are driven by melancholic guitar melodies that stand out the most on ”Human Mass Suicide”, which is the highlight of this tape. The vocal style reminds me of Wrest from Leviathan. "Horizonte Perdido" is an outro that ends the demo with calm yet ominous atmosphere, made with synths and picked guitar notes with delay effect. The contrast between the massive previous song ”Human Mass Suicide” and this outro is huge, it is like the calmness after a furious storm.

The other two tracks don’t reach as far as the previously mentioned, but they are decent too. The drums are programmed, but thanks to the noisy production they dont bother me. Thus The Absence of Light is a nice demo but nothing ground-breaking, so it is a worthy check if you’re into some simple and raw, yet melancholic black metal.
Share this review

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

A Sonication Technical Death Metal
OBSCURA
Buy this album from MMA partners
Hin helga kvöl Atmospheric Sludge Metal
SÓLSTAFIR
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Cycles of Suffering Black Metal
BURIAL OATH
Buy this album from MMA partners
Facilis Descensus Averno Death Metal
SAEVUS FINIS
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us