![a diadem of dead stars – emerald sunsets [compilation]](https://www.vm-underground.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/A-Diadem-of-Dead-Stars-Emerald-Sunsets-EP-cover.jpg "A Diadem of Dead Stars – Emerald Sunsets [Compilation]")
Info
- Band(s): A Diadem of Dead Stars
- Label(s): III Damnation Productions
- Release Format(s): 12" vinyl, Cassette, CD, Compilation
- Release Year: 2023
- Review Date: January 30, 2023
- Author(s): Marksson
Compilation releases are such a great way to get a taste for a band you have not had the opportunity to experience before. Greek solo project A Diadem of Dead Stars (Whose named is derived from the Wolves in the Throne Room album ‘Diadem of 12 Stars’) are one such band, and thanks to Ill Damnation Productions we have the chance to delve into some of this projects previously digital only material to hear what they are all about. Entitled ‘Emerald Sunsets’, this four track compilation includes all 2020’s ‘…Of Green Pastures…’ single, ‘The Light That Burns’ demo and 2021’s ‘The Furrow of Woes’ EP. The compilation will see the light of day on CD Digipack, cassette and LP and is clad in impressive cover art.
‘A Furrow of Woes’ is the first offering; an urgent and savage blast of on rushing Black Metal interspersed with monastic chants. Driven glacial sounding guitar leads combined with a maelstrom of flurried blast beats are very much the order of the day; tempered in part by short interludes of slower melody, and always the haunting chants sound out into the ether. From a musical approach that sounds like the equivalent of nuclear gusts comes a bleak and astral harmony created through cold synth tones, that then lead to the more direct sounding ‘And Swallows Flew Away From This Land’ whose guitar rhythms have more groove to them, but which don’t fully shed the Arctic chill of the previous track. On the whole this compilation has a detached, brisk aura and it isn’t until it heads towards the latter stages of ‘The Light That Burns’ that a ray of hope or promise can be detected in the melodies being performed. ‘Of Green Pastures’ is a pleasant ending to the compilation; comprised as it it is of lilting acoustic tones, soft flute melodies, bird song and other sounds of nature.
I find some compilations to be unnecessary, but this one is a great release and sheds light on the impressive work of a band that otherwise I may not have ever experienced.
A Diadem of Dead Stars
- Country: Greece
- Style: Black Metal [Atmospheric]
- Links: Facebook, Bandcamp
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III Damnation Productions
- Country: Greece
- Style: Black Metal
- Links: Facebook, Youtube
