Bræ – A Thousand Ways to End It All (Recommendatiom)

Sometimes, it only takes a vigilant eye to instantly find framing information about a release. When talking about one of the latest Amor Fati Productions releases that was brought to us by Bræ with A Thousand Ways to End it All, this might be a necessary step. Taking a look at the fact that you are going to get two tracks with each at 20+ minutes playtime, an album title that pretty much closes any need for further explanation about the content and above all the album cover, you can be pretty sure that this is not going to be easy listening. This is also what drove me into the album and had me stay for quite a while.

When entering, it only takes a few moments to realize that you are going to be in the middle of absolutely downtempo and raw Depressive Suicidal Black Metal with a production that drastically points at classy 2nd Wave Black Metal. The drums are somewhere in the background hazing the entire sound with a very reverb-driven and distant production, playing an ongoing dragging rhythm that accompanies the guitars. The riffing initially remains within slow, minor arpeggio riffs that construct an absolutely downdragging atmosphere and later on also add dissonant chords. On top of that, the vocals take place hidden in the background – it sometimes isn’t even possible to decide whether these are faint screams in the background or lyrics. All of these aspects merging together construct a dense atmosphere that entirely mesmerizes the listener during the first five minutes already.

When diving deeper into this release, though, the tension subtly rises primarily by alternating vocals and drum playing and evolves towards the more melancholic sequences of the album. The sound first of all paces towards vibrating and uneasing clean guitars that are combined with melancholic synth on top. This slowly progresses towards very evident Dungeon Synth influences that organically evolve from the Black Metal sound that played with the emotions of the listener before already. At some spots, this album eventually almost comes to a halt, letting go of the entire Black Metal sound and fully diving into a mixture of Dungeon Synth and almost film music vibes for any movie you can come up with that entirely drags you down to the bottom.

Once you are fully lulled in the discomforting synth sound, the Black Metal guitars step back in, topping the melodies and coming back in combination to construct a sound I can hardly put into words – the hardship that accompanies listening to this album as well as probably writing this release is conveyed to such a high amount that you lose any connection to reality for a few moments. I cannot tell any other release that has ever put me under a spell like this – the only comparable sound I can name is NONE‘s Damp Chill of Life – although it is not the sound that can be compared but the emotions that the atmosphere initiates.

The album is still available on vinyl at Amor Fati Productions, which is in my opinion the only fitting format for this release. You need to take this album, put it on your vinyl player, have the needle drop, lean back and fully immerse in this captivating atmosphere.

I was expecting a difficult and unsettling atmosphere when I decided to listen into this release and I was not let down. Maybe some of you might have read the opening explanation of the sound as sign of criticism, but this was exactly the sound I was looking for. This atmosphere does not work with an all sorted out and tight production, this needs to be messy and inconvient. If this is the DSBM sound you also enjoy, then you should not sleep on this release.