SYN ZE ŞASE TRI — Între Două Lumi (review)

SYN ZE ŞASE TRI — Între Două Lumi album cover

Album · 2011 · Symphonic Black Metal

4/5 · 2011-03-17
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Între Două Lumi is the debut album from Romanian symphonic black metal group Syn Ze Şase Tri, following on from the self-released demo Ziua din Urma from 2007, of which all the songs appear on Între Două Lumi. The album was released in 2011. Band founders Spin and Corb previously worked with the band Negură Bunget between 2009 and 2010 before turning their focus completely on Syn Ze Şase Tri.

On Între Două Lumi there are ten tracks of music. The first of these is Profeţie, which serves as an introduction to the album. It has quite an eerie sound with whispered vocals and wolves howling in the background and it sets the mood perfectly for the symphonic black metal onslaught that follows. The next three songs the band delivers are actually the same three songs from the 2007 demo. Since I haven’t heard that demo I can’t comment on how the versions on the album compare but what I can say is that songs such as Ziua din urmă showcase a band with many strengths right from the off. There are plenty of interesting riffs on offer in the songs as well as good symphonic ideas, although for the most part Între Două Lumi does not strike as an album that brings anything new to the table and neither does it often reach moments where a track could truly be considered a masterpiece, although there are some moments within it where the quality takes quite a big upturn, such as Făuritorul lumii and Gînd blestemat, both of which number among my personal favourites from the album. I especially like all the strange twists in the former than make it sound like quite the energetic track and the almost folksy intro to the latter. The instrumental piece Măreţia întrupării, which is the sixth track on the album is also of particular note for me, since it demonstrates some near classical tendencies and acts as a decent intermission in the album.

For the most part Între Două Lumi keeps the quality of the writing and performance pretty consistent. With many interesting ideas in their music Între Două Lumi is definitely a very enjoyable symphonic black metal release, though I can’t help feel that a few more of those good ideas in some places would have really upped the epic nature that parts of the album displays and turned some songs which I would consider to be good songs into great songs. What lets the album down the most for me though is actually the production job, which for me at least doesn’t really hit the spot at all. It’s far from being a raw black metal album but there are parts where I think the symphonic elements should have been given better prominence within the mix as I feel this would have given songs of the songs a more epic feel, where as it is they lack the sort of epic symphonic black metal nature than other acts in the genre have pulled off. That said, I think that for Între Două Lumi Syn Ze Şase Tri definitely deserve a rating of 8/10 for this very solid effort. If they can sort out the faults in the production and keep those good, epic and sometimes atmospheric ideas coming I imagine that for future albums they’ll be quite the force to be reckoned with.

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven)