Taarma - Remnants of a Tormenting Black Shadow
Suffering Jesus Productions

file under black/pagan metal

Roel F.: Black metal from Afghanistan: there’s something you don’t see everyday. As the sole band member Black Emperor Jogezai already states on the band’s website: “the Genre is totally non-existent in this part of the world!” A short synopsis of Taarma’s history may be in order, seeing that the band is rather unknown. Taarma hails from the Balochistan region, and the band’s name means ‘darkness’ in Brahvi. In 1999, the band was already a full-blown project, but it took until 2003 for Jogezai to record a demo, which was then officially released in 2005. This great period of time between 1999 and that first demo probably explains why Taarma now already has six releases under its belt. Clearly, there was plenty of time to write and compose music.

It is rather obvious what Jogezai is trying to create: dark, semi-drone black metal with lyrics that deal with death, winter, depression, and more of the highly familiar ingredients. You could call it suicidal black, black doom, or just repetitive black metal. In Taarma’s case, however, it merely boils down to Xasthur-emulation. While it is not necessarily a bad thing when one band copies another band’s sound, as it may accumulate in the formation of a specific genre, the result for Taarma is quite poor. Apart from the fact that Jogezai does not add one single bit to the Xasthur/suicidal style of black metal, the execution is badly flawed.In order to make appealing music, one has to play attractively; songs have to have a well-balanced structure, and dynamics that work. And quite frankly, those elements are missing on ‘Remnants Of A Tormenting Black Shadow’.

The most annoying characteristic of this album would be that all songs seem to lack any direction. There is no progress in them, no power, no real atmosphere, or any tension build-up. They just begin, plod on, and eventually die: alone, in a corner and forgotten, as if they’d never existed. There are simply no recognisable parts anyone would particularly want to hear over and over again. The songs constitute one big homogenous clamorous mass, even though Taarma is not a noise band. If it had been, ‘Remnants Of A Tormenting Black Shadow’ would still not be convincing. Any real riffs are few and far between. Once in a while a change of tone or speed can be heard, but basically, the guitars are responsible for a fifty-four minute-long whining tone. Moreover, where Xasthur is sometimes struggling with smooth riff transitions, Taarma seems to be failing altogether. To add insult to injury, there’s the drum computer. Occasionally, artificial drums can add a certain charm to the overall sound (for example: Carpe Tenebrum’s ‘Majestic Nothingness’; Mysticum’s ‘In The Streams Of Inferno’; and Xasthur). Here, the drums are annoying. They have been programmed haphazardly and there is practically no snare audible. Sometimes they go too slow, only to go too fast the next moment: quite amateurish. The only aspect remotely enjoyable on this CD is the vocal delivery. This is easily explained as it is highly reminiscent of Malefic’s style; deeply buried into the mix and nicely indecipherable.

The same goes for all elements on ‘Remnants’ that are tolerable. They seem to be carbon copies of Xasthur’s music, such as is the case in ‘Bleeding In Utter Solitude And Loss’, ‘Kafan prt. II’, en ‘Apparition Of Misery.’ Only, Xasthur is more convincing, somehow. The most blatant piece of evidence that proves Taamra’s shortage of individuality is the fact that the only really worth-wile song was actually a Xasthur cover. Perhaps Taarma should switch to playing war black metal. Jogezai would only have to pop his head outside his window for the much-needed inspiration he now so misses. Whether this would affect his musical abilities positively, however, remains to be seen. This CD is only for those curious enough to want to hear black metal from Afghanistan.

Rating: 30/100 (details)

http://www.freewebs.com/taarma