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Released on July 15, 2016 via Transcending Obscurity Records
Seedna is a black metal band from Sweden changing the face of black metal as we know it. Combining atmospheric black metal, post-metal, ritual black metal and doom elements into something of a concoction that only reveals the sum of its parts without clearly distinguishing each one, Seedna don’t play typical black metal. There is very little tremolo riffing, blastbeats, or the use of Satanic ideology. Rung notes and slow tempos predominate on Seedna’s album entitled Forlorn, and clearly driven to create music meant for reflection and introspection, they have crafted something unique and refreshing with their music.
Tracks often play for long epic runtimes. The drums often playing percussion suitable for slow tempos fitting for rituals, while the guitars feature downpicking and rock strumming instead of tremolo picking, Forlorn uses sounds and textures that are subtle but persuasive, rocking instead of all-out blasting, using atmosphere instead of sheer weight or brutality, displaying careful dynamics instead of chaotic song structures. It clearly feels like the band builds songs to climactic conclusions, instead of using standard song structure.
Like smoke from a dying ember, the music sometimes proves haunting and mystifying. It feels arcane without sounding too ancient and dated. It sounds modern without sounding watered down. Seedna use subtle melodies and clean, ambient sections that are interspersed with more aggressive metal segments, often to provide respite from the other, building up in a way that suggests continuity in its structure. It weaves a web instead of something notably solid. Like incense from a pipe, it sways with the wind, entering your ears and into the very fabric of your dreams, where memories of the afterlife are stillborn and waiting.
Spoken word passages are also haunting, sounding poetic while complementing the music nicely. Always echoing from a lost aeon, the music sounds otherworldly, and it takes you to a place you’ve never seen, just before the ambient section ends, and the more aggressive rock strumming riffs violently transport you to another place, perhaps life, wakefulness, the business of living and the cruelty and suffering that plagues this world. Here, the vocals complement the intense music, hoarse shrieks and screams accompanying the crashing cymbals and furious guitar riffs.
Just as quickly as the intense sections come, they lead the way to subtle ambient intermissions once again. Like a body seizing and entering catatonia, the music shifts violently, then settles. Like a heart stricken with atrophy, it pulsates rapidly, before slowing down, the little rung notes from the guitar echoing in the silence like you are listening to it in a morgue full of bodies, where ears might be listening, where souls no longer reside.
I invite introspective types and fans of conceptual metal to take a listen to this premiere. Seedna is a band on the rise, and its music may never be welcomed by the mainstream, but neither do we hope to fancy acceptance from the ignorant majority. I believe Seedna has crafted music that is majestic in times of quiet reflection, entertaining at times, inspiring during others. Having an open mind is a valuable asset. So, know that this is not punk-influenced black metal, neither is it Darkthrone all over again. Open your ears and listen without prejudice.
Listen to the exclusive première of the 5th track ‘Eternal’ here:
