Time Signature Burial in the sky...

Genre: atmospheric post metal

Often categorized a black metal act, Echtra's music actually goes way beyond the boundaries and confines of not just black metal, but metal in general. This artistic direction (or, these artistic directions) is (or, are) quite prominent on Echtra's latest effort, the epic 2-track album "Sky Burial". And, truth be told, it is in reality a one-song album with the single song being chopped up into two halves to accommodate the release format.

Juxtaposing acoustic passages with heavy and distorted doom-laden sections (and often actually overlaying acoustic guitars on top of the distorted ones), "Sky Burial" is incredibly expressive and introvert at the same time. The album, which is the first in a trilogy, is shoegazing post-metal at its best and, in addition to the heavy, semi-droning elements, it also features mild experiments with noise and atmospheric effects. In all fairness, there are black metal elements every now and then in the form of melancholic and depressive tremolo-picked melodies, but the black metal elements do not strike me as defining, but rather as some out of many different elements that constitute the overall sound of the album.

An introspective journey into the darkness of our inner cosmos, "Sky Burial" is expressive and atmospheric, and recommended to any fan of introvert and shoegazing atmospheric post-metal.