Although the band has released a good amount of EP’s and splits over the past years, ‘When The Darkness Comes’ is only Iechure’s second full-length album. But with this steady pace of releasing short players and especially the debut album from 2017, Lilita Arndt has built a considerable name in the underground Black Metal scene. Not in the least because she has been able to establish a certain sound of her own, even if that consists out of all familiar buildings blocks, the result is overwhelmingly unique. To that musical legacy she is now adding this newest album, ‘When The Darkness Comes’.
Indeed, nothing on this new album is new to the formula that Arndt has used before, yet it is not an exact copy of what the multi-instrumentalist has done before either. The repetitiveness of tremolo-picked riffs and melodies are still the very core of the music and Arndt’s diverse vocal range is completing the Ieschure picture. Yet with ‘When The Darkness Comes’ we are being treated on an exceptional tough piece to swallow.
In exact 38 minutes we heave to try to digest Arndt’s most challenging work to date. All of the individual elements of previous recordings are magnified and strengthened, making the repetitiveness in riffs and the alluring melodies even stronger and more oppressive and Arndt’s vocal delivery is even more snake charming than ever before. Although most of Ieschure’s previous work can be typified by its dragging pace and its subsequent gruelling nature, this element has also been expanded to such proportions it almost makes you gasp.
The secret of Ieschure, however, still lies within the unexpected. While the alluring one-dimensionalism of the guitars more or less form the very basis of the band’s sound, it also contrasts heavily to those sudden bursts of blast beat violence and strangling riffs. And yet, even within these fierce and fiery outbursts she is able to make it fit in the rest of the suffocating atmosphere of the album seamlessly. A true testament to the musician’s song writing capacities.
It is exactly there, within these rather limited musical frames in which Arndt is able to forge her music, that the grace and refinement of Ieschure can be found. It is indeed both razor sharp and soothing at the same time, making it feel like a dangerous, nightmarish musical schizophrenic affair that definitely will not be everyone’s cup of tea.
‘When The Darkness Comes’ and Ieschure as an entity, requires quite a bit of extra effort to fully wrap head around, but if you are willing to take a little effort to get to the bottom of this unusual piece of art, something of the unique and captivating beauty of this remarkable Ukrainian band unfolds once again.
