Review by Alain on March 3, 2020.

Huszar is a one-man band created in Argentina in 2015 by Marcos Agüero, who has been pretty active in the scene since that year. In fact, he has created another three projects, which are related to the atmospheric black metal genre with the exception of Desprecio. Going back to Huszar, we can say that this has been the most active project, as it has already released tree albums, alongside with some singles and splits. The album I am reviewing today is its last offering but not strictly a new one. The original recording was released two years ago and now it has been remastered and re-released by Morrowless Music, a new label founded by the well-known leader of the Swedish atmospheric black metal project Lustre, Nachtzeit. Thanks to this, Huszar’s Providencia has a renewed production and a truly beautiful new artwork, which surely will catch the attention of more fans, especially those in the European scene, as this release was originally more restricted to the South American scene only.

This remastered version of Providencia is a quite fine example of what Huszar does. The project is a quite interesting mixture of atmospheric black metal, some progressive influences and a good dose of post-metal. This means that the album's tracks flow in a very natural way from the quite straightforward aggression, heir from its black metal influences, to a quieter and more instrumental- esque sections, which are strongly influenced by post black and blackgaze. The instrumental post metal influenced sections cannot only be found as a part of the sung tracks, but also as full instrumental compositions, like for example the third track 'Providencia III: La Flora que Crece Alrededor de Nuestras Catedrales'. The most aggressive and blackish song like 'Providencia IV - De los Cometas en Llamas Hicimos Vuestro Culto' balances the album with a welcoming forthright strength. Marcos delivers a quite competent vocal performance, with the expected shrieks which sound powerful, alongside with a quite well composed guitars with an unmistakable black metal style. Drums sound well executed, with a healthy combination of blast-beats and a more diverse patterns. The purest mixture between the already mentioned influences have a greater room in the second and fifth songs, thanks to their generous length, clocking both over 15 minutes of time. Though the post, progressive and ambient influx can be found in almost every track, these longer compositions make possible to mix sections of every style in a quite natural way, flowing the track between seas of calm and moments of stormy fury. Those tracks are very tastefully composed and one of the best aspects is that you can't complain about their length, which is always a good aspect. The remastered production makes the album sound more clear and balanced, especially on the guitars, which help the compositions to shine as a more solid set.

Providencia is definitively a very good piece of atmospheric black metal, enriched with interesting and varied influences, where the compositions have been matured to sound elaborated yet reasonable easy to listen. An album which lasts more than one hour can always be a demanding listen, but Huszar makes possible to enjoy it without complaining too much about its length. I recommend keeping an eye on this project on its future releases.

Rating: 8.2 out of 10

Review by Frost on November 22, 2021.

I thought Ghost Bath were done after their last record crashed and burned as spectacularly as it did. They did seem to slither away into the shadows for some time. Maybe Dennis Mikula thought the metal world had rejected him and his band. Maybe he chose to fade out into the foggy dismal midnight mists of forgotten misfit bands, never to be remembered beyond having any albums that hovered beyond that ever omnipresent "decent" status. Oh, and their little China stunt. That'll never get old.

I wasn't particularly fond of Starmourner. A few songs grabbed me but, the ones that did were mostly absent of Dennis' vocals. Meanwhile, each song that did feature vocals, the quality dipped exponentially to the point where the song was flat-out ruined for me. Not even the ones that had pretty interesting riffage could save them from bottoming out. While a small handful of songs managed to capture me, it was a bad album hampered severely by poor songwriting, unengaging riffs, bloated length, and, of course, castrated baby screams for vocals.

Perhaps I'm being a touch too harsh. Ghost Bath aren't the worst band ever. Far from it. There are way worse black metal bands out there. Bad, uninspired, generic, bland second wave straddling black metal are a dime a dozen anywhere you look. For every Mayhem creating malevolent, hellish manifestations of blood-soaked grimness and evil, there's at least a dozen Nargaroths and Draugars out there in various forms polluting the genre. While I was unfavorable with this band's previous LP, snippets of their, at the time, unreleased new album, had surfaced and my ears perked up with curiosity. Perhaps this will be the album that would win me over to become a fan of Ghost Bath. Did it work?

The difference between Self Loather and Starmourner is stark and immediately noticeable. From the opening track all the way until its closing notes, the change in atmosphere will be the first thing noticed. Shades of dark despondence have leaked in and corrupted whatever sort of wispy ethereal somberness that gave the last album whatever colors it had. There was a sort of sorrowful, yet yearning humanity there with its ghostly night sky shimmering hauntingly over black mountains that graced that album cover. This album, on the other hand, has taken whatever colors were in Starmourner and bled them all dry until naught but only a pale white soul draped in black remained. It is dismal, depressing, soul wrenching with terror and hopelessness. Upon unleashing its gloomy and ravishing opener 'Convince Me To Bleed', the band start off strong down the winding road to abysmal blackness and just drives deeper into it with songs 'Hide From The Sun' and 'Unbearable'.

Diversity is the word of the day for this album. The songwriting here has taken a massive step up from their previous work. More emphasis is placed on a more traditional second-wave black metal sound than ever before. There's much more of the tremolo picking and blasting that typifies the Scandinavian second-wave sound, mostly from Norway. Of course, Ghost Bath hasn't fully abandoned the post-black metal that defined their sound early in their career. There are still jangly acoustic parts, a pretty piano ballad makes its way in, and even a cello, piano, and violin combo in the second half of 'Sanguine Mask'; but most of those bits have been truncated to make way for a much blacker, slower outing that feels like early Woods Of Ypres meets Taake meets Harakiri For The Sky with a hint of Strid: a melting pot of shivering, depressive hatred and self-loathing.

Unlike past albums where only Mikula was doing all of the writing (he's stated in interviews that the band was intended as a solo project with no lyrics), this one has contributions from the entire band. I have a feeling that might be why the last album was so bad. I don't think Mikula has the talent to pull off songwriting by himself. Even if that weren't true and the man was similar to Wrest and he thrived on working as a purely solo artist, when you've got other band members around you with ideas to contribute, it might be a good idea to let them in on the creative process. Song after song illustrates this from the utterly depressing 'Hide From The Sun' to the psychotic 'Sinew And Vein' to the achingly beautiful piano instrumental 'I Hope Death Finds Me Well'. Mikula's amped up his vocals here are a total improvement in every way. He utilizes the entire spectrum from wretched deep growls to mid-range screams to those horrible bellows. Yes, those are still here but, they're not in for forefront for 90% of the album anymore. They were given a cozy spot in the background where they belong and that makes me happy. The guitars here are fundamentally better here and played with much more dynamics and cohesion as the three men who share guitar duties work together to create some amazing solos, rhythm passages, and leads. There's strength in numbers and it's good to hear that all five of the men participated in the songwriting process this time because it led to some of the best songwriting this band has ever done.

Perhaps to its detriment....

This album, for better or for ill, is incredibly depressing sounding, even for Ghost Bath. There's a sadness to this album that is kind of distracting. It wallows in its misery so damn hard that it feels like a task seeing it through to the end. Mikula's stated in interviews that the title, lyrics, and overall tone of the album was directly inspired from the depressive feelings and self-loathing he was experiencing during the course of writing it. I can listen to similar bands like Abyssic Hate or Make A Change... Kill Yourself, bands that deliberately go out of their ways to submerse the listener in intense feelings of abject emptiness, self-hatred, misery, and pitch-black depression and not really feel like I've experienced any similar emotional pangs. This album does a number on me by the time the second song hits with those wails and I feel more uncomfortable than I've ever felt. Even though the song is good, it leaves me feeling scared, helpless, and anxious by the end. It kind of makes me want to turn the album off. Whether that's good or bad, I leave up to you but, for me, it ruins the experience by having to skip a song, thus lessening the impact.

I kind of had the same issue with Bethlehem's "S.U.I.Z.I.D.". That album put on a masterful show of tortured agony, but it was more than little bit tough to listen to the end the first time around. I feel the exact same problem here, except I've listened through it at least three times now whereas "S.U.I.Z.I.D.", which I bought years ago, is way easier to sift through than it was at first. Maybe acclimatization will arrive for me in a few years and a few dozen listens with this album but, when songs like 'Hide From The Sun' exist, I'm not sure that day will ever come. So, to answer my question, this album has officially converted me into a fan of Ghost Bath. It's made me feel good about what the band will do going forward. All I ask is one thing from Dennis Mikula: Please don't ever write a song like 'Hide From The Sun' again. Those cries felt too real and were so immensely unsettling. It made me want to cry, for goodness' sake.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Review by Frost on November 22, 2021.

I thought Ghost Bath were done after their last record crashed and burned as spectacularly as it did. They did seem to slither away into the shadows for some time. Maybe Dennis Mikula thought the metal world had rejected him and his band. Maybe he chose to fade out into the foggy dismal midnight mists of forgotten misfit bands, never to be remembered beyond having any albums that hovered beyond that ever omnipresent "decent" status. Oh, and their little China stunt. That'll never get old.

I wasn't particularly fond of Starmourner. A few songs grabbed me but, the ones that did were mostly absent of Dennis' vocals. Meanwhile, each song that did feature vocals, the quality dipped exponentially to the point where the song was flat-out ruined for me. Not even the ones that had pretty interesting riffage could save them from bottoming out. While a small handful of songs managed to capture me, it was a bad album hampered severely by poor songwriting, unengaging riffs, bloated length, and, of course, castrated baby screams for vocals.

Perhaps I'm being a touch too harsh. Ghost Bath aren't the worst band ever. Far from it. There are way worse black metal bands out there. Bad, uninspired, generic, bland second wave straddling black metal are a dime a dozen anywhere you look. For every Mayhem creating malevolent, hellish manifestations of blood-soaked grimness and evil, there's at least a dozen Nargaroths and Draugars out there in various forms polluting the genre. While I was unfavorable with this band's previous LP, snippets of their, at the time, unreleased new album, had surfaced and my ears perked up with curiosity. Perhaps this will be the album that would win me over to become a fan of Ghost Bath. Did it work?

The difference between Self Loather and Starmourner is stark and immediately noticeable. From the opening track all the way until its closing notes, the change in atmosphere will be the first thing noticed. Shades of dark despondence have leaked in and corrupted whatever sort of wispy ethereal somberness that gave the last album whatever colors it had. There was a sort of sorrowful, yet yearning humanity there with its ghostly night sky shimmering hauntingly over black mountains that graced that album cover. This album, on the other hand, has taken whatever colors were in Starmourner and bled them all dry until naught but only a pale white soul draped in black remained. It is dismal, depressing, soul wrenching with terror and hopelessness. Upon unleashing its gloomy and ravishing opener 'Convince Me To Bleed', the band start off strong down the winding road to abysmal blackness and just drives deeper into it with songs 'Hide From The Sun' and 'Unbearable'.

Diversity is the word of the day for this album. The songwriting here has taken a massive step up from their previous work. More emphasis is placed on a more traditional second-wave black metal sound than ever before. There's much more of the tremolo picking and blasting that typifies the Scandinavian second-wave sound, mostly from Norway. Of course, Ghost Bath hasn't fully abandoned the post-black metal that defined their sound early in their career. There are still jangly acoustic parts, a pretty piano ballad makes its way in, and even a cello, piano, and violin combo in the second half of 'Sanguine Mask'; but most of those bits have been truncated to make way for a much blacker, slower outing that feels like early Woods Of Ypres meets Taake meets Harakiri For The Sky with a hint of Strid: a melting pot of shivering, depressive hatred and self-loathing.

Unlike past albums where only Mikula was doing all of the writing (he's stated in interviews that the band was intended as a solo project with no lyrics), this one has contributions from the entire band. I have a feeling that might be why the last album was so bad. I don't think Mikula has the talent to pull off songwriting by himself. Even if that weren't true and the man was similar to Wrest and he thrived on working as a purely solo artist, when you've got other band members around you with ideas to contribute, it might be a good idea to let them in on the creative process. Song after song illustrates this from the utterly depressing 'Hide From The Sun' to the psychotic 'Sinew And Vein' to the achingly beautiful piano instrumental 'I Hope Death Finds Me Well'. Mikula's amped up his vocals here are a total improvement in every way. He utilizes the entire spectrum from wretched deep growls to mid-range screams to those horrible bellows. Yes, those are still here but, they're not in for forefront for 90% of the album anymore. They were given a cozy spot in the background where they belong and that makes me happy. The guitars here are fundamentally better here and played with much more dynamics and cohesion as the three men who share guitar duties work together to create some amazing solos, rhythm passages, and leads. There's strength in numbers and it's good to hear that all five of the men participated in the songwriting process this time because it led to some of the best songwriting this band has ever done.

Perhaps to its detriment....

This album, for better or for ill, is incredibly depressing sounding, even for Ghost Bath. There's a sadness to this album that is kind of distracting. It wallows in its misery so damn hard that it feels like a task seeing it through to the end. Mikula's stated in interviews that the title, lyrics, and overall tone of the album was directly inspired from the depressive feelings and self-loathing he was experiencing during the course of writing it. I can listen to similar bands like Abyssic Hate or Make A Change... Kill Yourself, bands that deliberately go out of their ways to submerse the listener in intense feelings of abject emptiness, self-hatred, misery, and pitch-black depression and not really feel like I've experienced any similar emotional pangs. This album does a number on me by the time the second song hits with those wails and I feel more uncomfortable than I've ever felt. Even though the song is good, it leaves me feeling scared, helpless, and anxious by the end. It kind of makes me want to turn the album off. Whether that's good or bad, I leave up to you but, for me, it ruins the experience by having to skip a song, thus lessening the impact.

I kind of had the same issue with Bethlehem's "S.U.I.Z.I.D.". That album put on a masterful show of tortured agony, but it was more than little bit tough to listen to the end the first time around. I feel the exact same problem here, except I've listened through it at least three times now whereas "S.U.I.Z.I.D.", which I bought years ago, is way easier to sift through than it was at first. Maybe acclimatization will arrive for me in a few years and a few dozen listens with this album but, when songs like 'Hide From The Sun' exist, I'm not sure that day will ever come. So, to answer my question, this album has officially converted me into a fan of Ghost Bath. It's made me feel good about what the band will do going forward. All I ask is one thing from Dennis Mikula: Please don't ever write a song like 'Hide From The Sun' again. Those cries felt too real and were so immensely unsettling. It made me want to cry, for goodness' sake.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Review by Alex on April 28, 2020.

Don't you just love it when you discover a new band and the music sounds just as good as the artwork looks. Huoripukki is a Finnish death metal band still perusing the throne since being formed; currently residing on Fallen Temple, the band returns with a two-track EP to give its supporters and newcomers a peek as to what is perhaps in store for the future. Lopun Airuet, puts on display where the band stands as of current time with two true to the bone death metal tracks 'Uusi Sodoma Nousee' and 'Raudan Aika'.

Appearing intrusively, 'Uusi Sodoma Nousee' begins the act with a depraved chanting layered by howls and growls that sprawl into the first segments of the instrumentation. When the music hits, it does so with every intention of inciting frenzied movements. The vocals are of a black metal snarl and a vicious death metal growl, carried by the primitive approach on the drums and guitars somewhat operating under the buzzing basslines. Though beginning with a doomy mid-pace, 'Uusi Sodoma Nousee' launches a sudden outburst of thrash and black metal frequencies, overlooked by those devastating bellows. The guitars appear in the solo that really puts the icing on this piece of devastation.

The excitement takes a step up the ladder with the bestial war metal like introduction of 'Raudan Aika' that makes 'Uusi Sodoma Nousee' sound like child’s play. I hope this is the direction Huoripukki is heading in and will remain committed to for future installments because I just love this track. Giving it an even more sadistic nature is how the guitars are placed somewhat under the bassy hammering like some foul creature fidgeting beneath the cauterized skin of some sick infection just waiting to burst from the sepsis. We are given some thrashing blows to go along with the condemned vocals heard and more pummeling black/death war metal drumming strengthened by swarming guitar leads to conclude proceedings.

Huoripukki have made their presence known on my radar, I just wish I had a better pair of speakers (than this mini set) to take advantage of this blasting desecration. Fallen Temple and Huoripukki have my attention as a result of Lopun Airuet, I hope the next entry by Huoripukki sees a continuation of this affair between good artwork and death/war metal.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Review by Alex on April 28, 2020.

Don't you just love it when you discover a new band and the music sounds just as good as the artwork looks. Huoripukki is a Finnish death metal band still perusing the throne since being formed; currently residing on Fallen Temple, the band returns with a two-track EP to give its supporters and newcomers a peek as to what is perhaps in store for the future. Lopun Airuet, puts on display where the band stands as of current time with two true to the bone death metal tracks 'Uusi Sodoma Nousee' and 'Raudan Aika'.

Appearing intrusively, 'Uusi Sodoma Nousee' begins the act with a depraved chanting layered by howls and growls that sprawl into the first segments of the instrumentation. When the music hits, it does so with every intention of inciting frenzied movements. The vocals are of a black metal snarl and a vicious death metal growl, carried by the primitive approach on the drums and guitars somewhat operating under the buzzing basslines. Though beginning with a doomy mid-pace, 'Uusi Sodoma Nousee' launches a sudden outburst of thrash and black metal frequencies, overlooked by those devastating bellows. The guitars appear in the solo that really puts the icing on this piece of devastation.

The excitement takes a step up the ladder with the bestial war metal like introduction of 'Raudan Aika' that makes 'Uusi Sodoma Nousee' sound like child’s play. I hope this is the direction Huoripukki is heading in and will remain committed to for future installments because I just love this track. Giving it an even more sadistic nature is how the guitars are placed somewhat under the bassy hammering like some foul creature fidgeting beneath the cauterized skin of some sick infection just waiting to burst from the sepsis. We are given some thrashing blows to go along with the condemned vocals heard and more pummeling black/death war metal drumming strengthened by swarming guitar leads to conclude proceedings.

Huoripukki have made their presence known on my radar, I just wish I had a better pair of speakers (than this mini set) to take advantage of this blasting desecration. Fallen Temple and Huoripukki have my attention as a result of Lopun Airuet, I hope the next entry by Huoripukki sees a continuation of this affair between good artwork and death/war metal.

Rating: 8 out of 10