Review by Saxy S for Despondent Moon - Enshrouded in Eternal Moonlight (2021)

Despondent Moon is a solo black metal project from the U.K. who has been working on a very niche brand of atmospheric black metal. While clearly taking some lessons from Burzum in the use of softer, ambient portions and Dungeon synth interludes, this is far more in line with straightforward, ruthless black metal. 

And I can already imagine that many folks who are already enamored by this brand of black metal are flocking to a record such as this one...and I wish I could be a part of them. Look, despite the fact that the black metal sections are pretty cool and have some great deviances throughout the project, not much outside of a few moments really stuck with me. And those moments were typically comparisons to other artists.

The sound and timbre of this album reminded me quite a bit of Fen, and not the progressive metal Fen, but the Winter Fen. However, Despondent Moon’s production is far too bright for this kind of black metal. The bass presence is completely missing during much of the albums louder, enforced moments (“The Howling of the Hallowed Hands”, “Apparition of the Countess Descending the Spiral Staircase”, etc.), while the vocals are so compressed in the mix that it sounds meaningless. Toss on top of that what sounds like wah effects on the vocals, and good luck understanding any of it, even for the most well developed ear to death/black metal vocals.

Some of the slower passages have an Enslaved vibe going on, especially on “Apparition of the Countess Descending the Spiral Staircase”, but the overall vibe of this album is just pure chaos. The overabundance of noise going on at any one moment does not make me feel the way the album wants me to, and the dungeon synth passages don’t make me feel release either; rather an interlude with no purpose or connectivity to the black metal songs. I can see why some would adore this kind of black metal, but it isn’t doing it for me.