Mare – Spheres Like Death
It feels like a long time since we got our teeth sunk into Mare’s previous release and I was eager to give this plenty of airtime. As we suspected Spheres like death doesn’t disappoint and offers up another quality helping of one of the scene’s most original acts.
‘Nidrosian Moon Sabbat’ gets straight down to business and peals out of the stereo like rippling thunder. In their own interesting and unusual style it casts metaphysical and ritual grimness in abundance using tempo and riffing not unlike De Mysteriis era Mayhem. Its a belting song and shows that they’ve honed their sound significantly since the earlier 7″. Its still Mare, just in case you wondered but with a clearer production and more coordinated structure (in my opinion).
The title track is four and a half minutes of a one chord riff and dribbles by until ‘Nachtmahrwalzer – Invocation Of The Succubus’ slices open. Another extremely potent and engrossing tune of darkness. The EP concludes with ‘Offerlam’, an ambient outro.
As a whole the effect of Spheres Like Death is good; dark and thought provoking if you should desire it to be or grim and savage. I like it alot but the two ambient songs seem out of place to me because Mare’s music possesses enough atmosphere naturally without having to include such tracks. This might have been better suited to another 7″ release.
You can’t deny them though, it is still essential Nidrosian fare and well worth adding to your swollen underground collections. They do their own thing in their own way, they sound like no one but themselves and that in itself deserves mountains of credit.
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