Terra – Untitled

Last Updated on 01:09 PM by Lilliana Tseka

Genre: Black/Drone/Ambient
Country: England
Label: Hibernacula Records
Year: 2015

Debut album by Terra, a trio coming from Cambridge, England. Ryan Saunders (guitars, vocals), Olly Walton (bass, Vocals) and Luke Braddick (drums) are giving us their version of how modern and atmospheric black metal should be. Initially, ‘Untitled’ was an independent and digital release through their bandcamp and later Hibernacula Records handled the release of its physical format.

The album contains three long songs clocking around 41 minutes and the titles of the tracks are the first three latin numbers. In every song, the group manages to take the listener on a trip, thanks to the amazing, dark and well-crafted atmosphere. So, here we have modern, atmospheric black metal in the vein of Wolves In The Throne Room, but without being a clone of them. All the tracks last over 11 minutes, containing variable tempos through their duration and end with long tremolo sounds. The vocally delivery is pretty extreme and contains mostly unearthly screaming and howls. I don’t know if there are lyrics or just screaming, but what we hear fits well with the music and doesn’t affect negatively the whole result.

All the songs could be perfectly described by the term hypnotic. Terra’s music doesn’t get tiring at all, while the presence of ambient and drone elements combined with the tempo variations, keep the listener hypnotized from start till end. Structurally speaking, ‘III’ differs a little from the two first songs, while ‘II’, with its basic riff bringing in mind celtic melodies, is perhaps the best song for the genre for this year so far! This is truly an amazing and promising debut release, can’t wait for the next one!

4,5/6