It isn’t often that you’ll see a graceful butterfly on the artwork for a debut demo. Hungarian Death/Doom duo Cave Altar strives to find a balance between the beauty of nature and its natural opposite, decay. Their opening demo, ‘Impermanence’, features just the two tracks and yet within those the timeframe of just eight minutes the two of them manage to create a ferociously brooding atmosphere, a forest dwelling darkness conjured by monolithic leads that crush and crawl along the forest carpet. Whilst Cave Altar revel in natural beauty, their sound is pure gloom and desolation. Haunting, subtle synth play only adds to the bleakness and yet the second track ‘Soul Drift’ is an instrumental ambient piece that would find a welcome home on a release by fellow Hungarian Dark Ambient/Black Metal band Forest Silence. An impressive debut, one I’ve had on repeat a few times already. The cassette version is still available on the bands Bandcamp page so try and pick up a copy. (Luke Hayhurst)
Cave Altar – Impermanence [Demo]
Info
- Bands: Cave Altar
- Labels: Colmorlig Creations
- Release Formats: Cassette, Demo
- Release Years: 2021
- Review Date: August 20, 2022
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