1. Intro: Requiem for Tommorows
2. Part 1: Night Struggle
3. Part 2: Just a While Before
4. Part 3: Awakening
5. Part 4: All This Pain for Today
Ignoring the ridiculous attempt at a pun for a name, Polish act Deep-Pression have been somewhat of a revolving door to various members over the years. Having split up in 2009, 4: Void of a Morning is that last release before the split. Recorded over a rather long timespan of two years, and nine performers in total, it's certainly an intriguing piece of work. Previous Deep-Pression releases would have generally fallen into the ambient, droney black metal bracket, but Void of a Morning has pretty much forsaken all black metal elements in favour of an apocalyptic form of dark ambience that at times could be comparable to say a variety of Cold Meat Industry acts. Described as a concept album 'from dreaming, through awakening to the devouring mouths of reality'. Maybe bordering on the edge of pretentious, but when you apply the description to the music, it couldn't really be any more fitting.
Introduction 'Requiem for the Tommorows' (Glaringly obvious spelling mistake aside) is, as far as setting the tone for an album goes, pretty much ideal. It's nothing more than a bleak, oppressive droning with an isolated industrial-esque pulse breaking the monotony a few times. It works well in encapsulating the final throes of consciousness before sleep, before the nightmare arrives in the form of 'Night Struggle' with it's barren soundscape structured by the dissonant, distorted ambience created by the guitars and electronics. There's sparse vocals in the song, performed by a guy called Razor and are a restrained whisper, who does the vocals for part two and three as well. Each track, or movement, is split up by an interlude, and really serve as nothing more than a transition between each stage of the protagonist's dreamstate. 'Just a While Before' continues with the detached air, though more-so this time due to the almost Fields of the Nephilim like atmosphere created by the bass of none other than Vrangsinn of Carpathian Forest fame. It almost sounds as if it could have been taken off Elizium and completely stripped down of everything except vocals and bass. I don't know if it's supposed to make me feel uneasy or what but when listening to this song I actually end up more relaxed than anything. 'Awakening' is pretty much the same as the first track in its ambience, with an unfettered air of torture hanging around it like a wet fog while the protagonist enters the neon realms of the end of his sleep. Then the reality of 'All this Pain for Today', the only song with any connection at all to Black Metal, and that's only in the extremely scant guitar and howling vocals performed by Letaliis.
It's extremely repetitive, but it works. If you know anything at all about the dark-ambient genre, you'll know progression is most certainly not it's forte. There's a certain satisfying feeling of dread in the subtlety of it all. A lot of metal fans wouldn't normally listen music like this, thus is why Deep-Pression probably get so much flak when people do come across their music. With their background in Black Metal and associations with bands such as Trist and Happy days it doesn't help. If obscure dark-ambient is your thing I'd definitely recommend this. It's by no means ground breaking for music of this style, and it does tend to drag on a bit at time where it could do with a little variation, but it is certainly competent enough, and in the right mindset is an engaging listen. If you're a newcomer to the genre though, there are probably better places to begin.
67/100
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Thanks to Robert @ http://www.valsesinistre.com
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