Reviews list for Selbst - Despondency Chord Progressions (2024)

Despondency Chord Progressions is quite a tough album to dissect. I went into this album expecting it to more dissonant, as the opening track "La encarnación de todos los miedos" suggested. Afterwards, this album became far more of a progressive affair and the dissonance served more as a embellishment to stronger songwriting than I expected. Unfortunately for Selbst, nothing within this record feels like a true songwriting gem; rather the album has some strong grooves that are very enjoyable while I am listening to them, but not sticky enough to remain in the listeners memory for very long, or even the musicians ears. Any semblance of a true motif is hiding behind the wall of black metal reverb and effects, limiting the potential of both the guitar leads and the harsh vocals.

When these sounds are present, they sound great; it really feels like a well constructed blending of both melodic and dissonant tendencies, to go alongside a strong balance of pummeling black metal and restrained post-metal. But, my issue is that these two contrary ideas are just that: contrary. They are kept separated instead of blending the two together into a cohesive juggernaut of a metal album. Instead we are left with an album that is more disjointed and lost than I think Selbst would have liked.

I'm not saying that it's a bad record; far from it. As it comes to quasi post-black metal, there are a lot of ideas that work. But bringing them together is a real challenge and I'm not quite sure Selbst pull it off quite fully yet. I have a feeling this album will get better with a few more listens.

Best Songs: Chant of Self Confrontation, The Stench of a Dead Spirit, When True Loneliness is Experienced

The seemingly unstoppable evolution of South American metal in recent years shows no sign of abating still in 2024. Venezuelan in origin, yet now residing in Chile, Selbst's challenging brand of black metal bled through well on 2020's Relatos de angustia. Come 2024, multi-instrumentalist, N has once again continued the exploratory direction of his project adding a cleaner and more progressive leaning slant to album number three. By now a very well-established artist, the song writing on Despondency Chord Progressions smells of confidence. Clearly at home in his surroundings, the thoughts and ideas in his head translate well into the seven tracks here. We get (largely) strong structures and some deft and agile guitar playing, which are the two main standouts for me on the record.

The cleaner aspects are where things come a little unstuck for me in all honesty though. There is nothing wrong with progressing as an artist and growing as a musician (both of which are obvious developments on this record) of course, however there is always the risk that along the way you lose some of the fan base. Whilst by no means alienated by the record, it does stray too close to a sound that is not my usual fare. There is still more than enough Deathspell Omega and Mgla vibes to keep the more conventional black metal fan scowling contentedly. However, the layering feels less cold and unwelcoming this time around, leading to a sense of some loss of depth from the sound of the previous record.

Tracks such as When True Loneliness is Experienced border on the meandering in places, and whilst this track does pull itself into a more appealing space by the end, the work to get there does not necessarily justify the outcome. Clearly developing well, Selbst is a project that will continue to grow and branch out into pastures newer as time goes on, I am sure. Despondency Chord Progressions is a strong record, just not one liked overall by this scribe. Selbst is still winning and has the potential to become an unstoppable force in the future if N can continue to develop record-to-record as he has over the last two. I will contently sit waving over the distance between us as it grows though.