Waste of Life-Submersed in Past Sorrows Review

1. Withering Within the Cold Throes of Suicide
2. As I Am Swallowed by the Great Beyond
3. Waste of Life
4. Endless, Unwanted Pain (You Have Caused)
5. If You (M.S.)
6. My Last Words

Depressive Illusions Records, a tape company and whom have brought us with such acts like Faulen, Force Fed Life, Verdun, will be unleashing the second full length of this U.S. depressive black metal band. Hailing from Illinois this one man band is the project of Darrick Hazelwood (D.H.) from such acts Force Fed Life and the latest Schizophrenic Torment.

In this latest opus D.H. brings forth six tracks, reaching to about 69+ minutes of atmospheric, depressive black metal. Within the tracks you will find an array of dismal emotions surrounded by angelic yet melancholic beauty. The vox style is pretty insane and harsh, no clean vox, however, a nice few spoken passages can be heard throughout the tracks. If I remember correctly, D.H. did make a mention that he out did himself while writing this album especially the last track. The writing style of D.H. catches the ear by slowly building up the song, slowly adding elements of atmosphere, clean guitars, and at times experimental sounds like on the track My Last Words. While the writing style variates from his other more upbeat project Force Fed Life, D.H. shows he is not afraid to show a more emotional side of darkness. As I am Swallowed by the Great Beyond and Endless, Unwanted Pain are prime examples of that. Not all the tempos are constant. We do endure some nice tempo changes like on the opening track Withering Within the Cold Throes of Suicide. Oh and you can't leave out the more aggressive black metal track, Waste of Life, as it unleashes dark, aggressive melodics accompanied by a few hard pound hitting blast beats which is not too often heard on the album, still Waste of Life manages to capture dark beauty especially as builds up towards the end.

In summation, I would say that Submersed in Past Sorrows has done a good job at getting your self-esteem low, but hey, isn't that the purpose? There are not many in the genre today that can provide the same quality of atmosphere that Waste of Life brings forth and combine it with depressive black metal. Well, there have been a few bands, some good, but more not so good. I reckon Waste of Life is surely up there with the good ones especially with this latest release. If you crave long depressive tracks with atmosphere then this release is for you.

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Review by Vyldr