A Transylvanian Funeral 'the Outsider' TAPE

$5.00

PRO TAPE
Hand Numbered by the Sleepwalker
Limited to 100

Review Courtesy of Nachzehrer of Within the Black Abyss

It has been a while since I have acquired a recording that has grabbed my attention to the extent that I find myself listening to it for days on end without tiring of it, which is why this album is a refreshing change.

“The Outsider” is the forthcoming second full-length offering from A Transylvanian Funeral, a US solo project conceived by Sleepwalker, and I really cannot think of anything that I dislike about this album. Scathing black metal rawness and esoteric lyrics intertwine with tranquil melodies and elements of death and doom metal which give this album a foreboding, eerie, almost ethereal atmosphere. Tracks change from frantic howling, face-shredding riffs and blasting drums to sombre and brooding (yet beautiful) melodies in a heartbeat, such as the title-track which starts with a cacophany of blast-beats, guitars and throat-splitting vocals then all of a sudden dives into a slow piano piece before continuing the mayhem. Other tracks feature trudging, doom-laden guitar riffs and slow, pounding drums with chanting vocals which stir the adrenaline like some kind of general’s speech right before a battle.

There are a couple of tracks which consist of ambient soundscapes mixed with such sounds as high-frequency electronic noise, radio inferference and so on, which make you start hearing sounds that aren’t actually there. I made the mistake of listening to the album for the first time on my earphones on a lonesome, half-stoned afternoon walk through my local forest, which resulted in a lot of moments where I was thinking “what the fuck was that?!?!” whilst scouring the landscape in my immediate vicinity for any weird goings-on.

When I received this album I had expectations of hearing some decent raw black metal, but on listening I was caught completely off guard right from the first track and found it to be a far deeper, more immersive experience, not easily forgettable.