{"id":75024,"date":"2018-07-14T00:00:38","date_gmt":"2018-07-14T00:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=75024"},"modified":"2018-12-31T15:34:07","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T15:34:07","slug":"album-review-talsur-tormented","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-talsur-tormented\/","title":{"rendered":"TALSUR – Tormented (2018) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

TALSUR
Tormented<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nSelf-released (2018)<\/span>
Rating: 9\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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I\u2019ve always been a bit on and off when it comes to hearing violins and other similar instruments on heavy metal albums, but in the case of UK act My Dying Bride and Russia\u2019s Talsur I can more than make an exception.<\/p>\n

Tormented<\/em> is a wonderfully atmospheric, doom-drenched opus from this one-man band \u2013 a chap who has released a handful of evocative slow-motion albums over the years.<\/p>\n

This new experience is similarly morose as a wistful yet sorrowful violin leads us in via \u2018Lamentoso\u2019, before the despondent strains of the seven-minute \u2018Demorior\u2019 make sure we\u2019re not sitting too comfortably by the woodland fire. Indeed, Talsur has once again provided a musical soundtrack to despair and loneliness; a brooding mire of the morose where all rhythms ponder in slow, mournful dirges to a lazy lyrical drool where our rather unhappy composer moans \u201cI regret I exist\u201d<\/em>, but some days… don\u2019t we all?<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, this album is a thing of beauty amidst the despondency and seemingly inconsolable tones; the vocals veer from clear yet bellowing croons to guttural groans of bleak matter as each track laboriously oozes and further glum lyrical expressions in the form of \u201cYou have no sense to live\u201d<\/em> and the equally negative \u201cI just wish to hide in my own, so deep\u201d<\/em>. Indeed, Talsur creates reclusive and elusive notes with each aching segment eager to shun the light and every gloomy slab feeling lengthier than the last one.<\/p>\n

\u2018I Bequeath\u2019 remains equally stirring as that violin drifts into the night air, one imagining embers of the fire soaring into blackness and a lonely, isolated spirit wandering almost aimlessly in some sort of woodland limbo. The music remains as that dragging, gaping maw of blackness as Talsur reflects, \u201cI\u2019lll die in blackened shadows of my own misery\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It could be argued then that Tormented<\/em> is an acquired taste; a deep, throbbing opus that is neither doom or death metal. Sure, all pace is stripped away, but the suicidal and ethereal quality somehow seems too haunting to be considered as doom. Either way, it makes for an engaging listen, the music always plodding and heaving yet enticing as \u2018Waters Of Loss\u2019 eerily creeps to a ghostly piano; why am I getting hints of Ghost initially with this lachrymal outpouring of grief?<\/p>\n

As the old oak beams strain and heave, we\u2019re once again drifting into an ethereal darkness as funereal chimes seep into blacker shadows; the guitar sound offers up a genuine, stripped back doom roll as Talsur\u2019s medieval barks snap \u201cHow do you feel this hopelessness, Instead of world you hate? You sang yourself a black mass, Begging for mercy from your own grave\u201d<\/em> as again there\u2019s that mystical and almost cosy fireside glare amidst the blankets of gloom.<\/p>\n

Yes, the songs are long, but damn I can\u2019t help be bewitched by the stormy rumble of the foetid \u2018Bleeding\u2019, which is a hideous fusing of Saint Vitus and Candlemass and yet something else, something beyond the black in its lyrical guile and treachery.<\/p>\n

\u2018Mortal Beloved\u2019 returns to that rustic traipse, meanwhile, the clearer vocal sweeps echo through the brain like a candle flame lapping at the walls of a woodland cabin. Again I feel alone, the whispers of the night caressing the neck, and I\u2019m unsure if I\u2019m to be toyed with or simply suffocated by the whole mournful experience.<\/p>\n

\u2018Regrets\u2019 offers up another classic doom metal riff; the lyrics can\u2019t get more Gothic and dread-filled as Talsur groans \u201cFeel the fear of immortal pierces you from inside. Desolated. Exhausted \u2013 destroyed the place you hide. Between these walls of madness I’ve tried to seek the calm. Wish to deserve forgiveness with my name on tombstone\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, there\u2019s \u2018Sanctuary Of Sinners\u2019, where the violin again comes to the fore \u2013 it flirts with that murky trudge as Talsur warns \u201cTimeless depth of dark awaits\u201d<\/em>. I\u2019m fully aware of such endless horrors and meet them when the 13-minute \u2018Tormented By Fate\u2019 comes tinkling in on a haunting piano before the sea of black guitars wash over all and sundry like a blanket of enveloping silt. \u201cObey to me – I will allow you die\u201d<\/em> bellows Talsur, and boy am I thankful that I can possibly escape this foreboding composition as those plodding structures cavort with stark piano droplets.<\/p>\n

And there I am, alone again, in the forest, jolted awake, hoping it was just a nightmare. Talsur is a dark magician, and Tormented<\/em> unravels as a tapestry of wondrous morose majesty.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TALSURTormented Self-released (2018)Rating: 9\/10 I\u2019ve always been a bit on and off when it comes to hearing violins and other similar instruments on heavy metal albums, but in the case of UK act My Dying Bride and Russia\u2019s Talsur I can more than make an exception. Tormented is a wonderfully atmospheric, doom-drenched opus from this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,4254],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-talsur"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75024"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75025,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75024\/revisions\/75025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}