Unreqvited "Disquiet"

  2016 seems to be the year of atmospheric black metal, because I find myself writing a review for yet another talented band that explores the genre’s infinite potential for musical creativity. Unreqvited is a one-man project from Canada that captured my attention right away when I first heard the song, “Disquiet.” Soon after hearing that song, I was highly anticipating the release of this debut full-length album.

  The band’s style of atmospheric black metal is one that paints a canvas of musical diversity with elements of post rock, ambient and of course that majestic atmospheric black metal sound that completely washes over your soul. From the beginning you find yourself locked into this massive sounding world of guitars, synthesizers and drums. Instead of clearly presenting lyrical content, the artist uses these cries of agony to give the release a unique quality that replaces words with true human expression. When evaluating the overall production quality and sound of the album, I find there to be few weak moments, which tells you the sort of hard work that went into recording this release.

  As I said before my first introduction to the band was when I heard the title track before the album’s release. Now having heard the entire album, I am able to understand how that song fits into the entire picture. “Disquiet,” may be separated into seven tracks,  but the music is one piece of an emotional odyssey through these captivating atmospheric landscapes with fading cries of aguish to create a brilliant contrast of sound. Unrequited opens the album with the song, “Birth,” and ends the release with the appropriately titled track, “Death.” That final song happens to be one of the most deep and moving pieces of music I have heard this year and I will go into further detail later on in this review. The rest of the songs on the album convey their own distinct sounding themes, yet maintain a level of consistency that makes the transitions from each track flow with great synergy.

  “The Autumn Fire,” is one song that I found myself constantly replaying once it finished. I just close my eyes and let the music take me away with its soothing and dynamic guitar arrangements. The melodic touches combined with the cold black metal screams is very comforting. Other songs that expressed a similar sounding presentation that I also enjoyed were, “An Ocean of Ire,” and “Maydena.” In the end, my favorite song on the album is, “Death.” The keyboard parts are well composed, while the background synth provides a deep and moving atmosphere. As the final distorted guitar section concludes the sounds of thunder can be heard echoing in the background. The music fades out with a pleasant piano section to close the book on this atmospheric tale.

  Unreqvited’s, “Disquiet,” is an album that had me speechless at times, but as you can tell by the length of this review I had a lot to say about the release. Arguably one of the best sounding releases to come out this year and the recording quality is once again really impressive. When dealing with this frustrating and crazy modern world, I think releases like this are a great investment and can be really therapeutic. I feel like saying highly recommended is not enough...you should really make the time to listen to this album.


Unreqvited "The Autumn Fire" :

Unrequited Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/unreqvited

Unrequited Bandcamp:
https://unreqvited.bandcamp.com