Review by Saxy S 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