The Great White Emptiness (Dusktone)

 Cold Body Radiation is a new Dutch one man band project formed by M. in 2009, and “The Great White Emptiness” is the band first full length and first release ever. The band is labeled as Post Black Metal / Shoegaze, and to be honest I had to do some research, to know what the hell “shoegaze” was, and if your are reading these pages you’ll probably have no idea either, well let me tell you Shoegaze is an alternative music stream, that conjugates reverberant and oneiric elements in order to create a sort of “introspective” and hypnotic soft Rock… anyway, I rather call this band’s style simply Post Black Metal, and not only because its unusual, modern and original approach to one of the most “evil” sounding extreme genres on the planet, but because of its magnificent bland between dreamy Post Rock elements and what we could label as Melancholic Black Metal. Since the opening track the hypnotic atmospheres of emptiness and introspection fill this record with its mesmerizing use of soft lead guitar lines in conjunction with magnetic keyboards, deep and relaxing bass and a simple floating drumming. This drug-induced-like mood set the trademark of this album, even when is constantly complemented by harsh US-styled Black Metal elements such infernal, tortured and saturated shrieks, sharpened riffs and double-bass drum expositions, which reminds me at moments of the sound of bands like Xasthur and Leviathan… “The Great White Emptiness” is a magnificent album; sounding atmospheric, hypnotic and obscure Cold Body Radiation have created a rock-solid debut that shows the band’s huge potential in an incredibly eloquent manner… I strongly recommend this album, for everyone into the excellently composed, nicely executed and drug filled music, from the “suicidal” audience of the Depressive Black Metal movement (if there’s anyone alive yet), to the most atmospheric and stoned faction of the Post Rock listeners…(AP)