LP Review: "The Four Days of the Mind" by Dynfari

The Four Days of the Mind

Now that your friend and humble narrator is older, it's easy to say that High School sucked.

Well as I was well read and poorly dressed in high school, it was easy then to say it sucked.  High School, mine anyway, showcased the absolute worst in American society.

Riches were prized. Attractiveness was a premium. What was nominally valued was the quality of the human being that was underneath the money and clothes.

It was easy to be above all of that during the time. Because then, like now, I wasn't attractive. There were no riches in my household.

I was also poorly dressed as my family didn't put a large premium on designer clothing. Though I hated that at the time, I don't much care for them now. Ironic isn't it? Not Darth Plagueis The Wize level irony, but still. (See why I wasn't popular?)

Album Review: "Snow//Heritage" by Chiral

In no genre of music is the one man band more prolific than black metal. I understand why Varg Vikerness of Mayhem and Burzum fame had to go it solo after having killed the guitarist in his previous band, but why have so many others (Old Man’s Child, Xasthur, Myrkur, Leviathan, Panopticon to name just five of hundreds) gone this route? 

Maybe it is difficult to find other musicians with the ability or desire to play this most extreme of music.  Or maybe the misanthropic mindset which leads one into this genre just doesn't allow for dealing with bandmates. Whatever the reason, it often leads to an uncompromised product of the creator's artistic vision.


This is certainly true of Italian one man band Chiral’s soon to be released instrumental EP “Snow/Heritage”.   The artist does not categorize this album as strictly black metal, rather opting for the tag of atmospheric-post black metal neofolk.  

Certainly elements of black metal are there on the first and last songs of this four song EP, “Sage Moon ” and “Whiteness (The Snow and the Borrowed Lights)” .  Some of the hypnotic sections which feature blast beat drums surely sound as if they are ominously emitting from a frozen Norwegian forest.