This has been referred to as "Burzum style black metal" in previous reviews. I suppose you could draw a few comparisons to that particular band, mainly because of the vocal style, but I'd say Brisen would have to differ in more ways. There's some nice acoustic guitar moments, whispered sections, and a generally different atmosphere. Alas, like Burzum, there's slow and brooding synth parts, heavily screamed vocals, and just like the first LP and EP, some "rocking" sections. Thus, it would be logical to compare this to Burzum's self titled LP, and the "Aske" EP.

Everything here (including new material, an unreleased track, and the earlier demo) is fairly slow, with successfully screamed vocals, and tasteful keyboard sections. Sadly, the guitars are drowned out of the mix by the over-produced vocals and drums, leaving the listener with a less than happy listening experience. Don't get me wrong, the music here is excellent, with great vocals and ambience, but the production is really quite lacking in all areas. A quick look at the demo tracks, which have a far more solid production (that seems really quite illogical to me) proves that the music does have some merit.

Sadly, the album is lost because of the negative production values. With a tad more work, and a more balanced production though, I think this band could easily join the ranks of other Italian groups, a scene that should be closely inspected at this point, since it's becoming a force to be reckoned with. Oh, and by the way, the track "Nema" is in fact not in some alien language. It's simply backwards Italian :)

© 1997 brand