Saturnine "Self Titled" EP Review

Saturnine EP:

  I heard about this project through various people in the underground and I never really decided to check it out. I’m not really a black metal fanatic so I didn’t really think this would be my bag to be quite honest, but after trading CDs with the bands founder and composer Jim Greco (Vomikaust/ex Cursed Ruin) I’m actually glad I decided to take a listen to it. Saturnine for me is more dark orchestral type music then it is just straight up black metal. The black metal elements are definitely there in the vocals and some of the guitar and drum parts, but other times with the violin and acoustic guitars it seems to take more of a dark chamber music turn for me. I liked Bobby Marcum’s drumming too I liked that he played fast, but wasn’t just blasting like a lot of people in extreme music like to do. I’m all about blastbeats and thrash beats, but sometimes slowing it down isn't so bad either. The riffs courtesy of Jim Greco (who played all the acoustic and electrics guitars as well as the bass and who also did lead vocals) are actually put together pretty well, and are put together a lot better than what you would usually hear when it comes to underground black metal. The other thing that stands out is the production quality is 10 times better than a lot of underground black metal as well, the whole shitty recording thing just turns me off in any genre of music. The violin work by Rebecca Zapen is quite superb as well and definitely adds to this recording a lot. The only complaints I had were that the riffs seemed to take a while to change for example on the tracks “Haunting Eve” and “Warn the Wicked” the riffs themselves were good, but seemed to drag on just a bit too long at least for me. The song “A Painful End to a Cursed Life” was my personal favorite I like the Disembowelment  D-Beat Feel to the beginning part of that song. It really punched you in the face, which complemented the more depressing melodic tracks that started the album off. The last track “In Death’s Lure” (A tragedy welcomed) which features vocals from Josh Jetty (Vomit Spawn/Queef Huffer/Dead Centre) definitely ends the record off quite well with its acoustic and violin interlude in the middle which I also liked a lot. One thing I wanted to point out too was Greco’s vocals, which reminded me a lot of Rob Darken, are torturous screams which add to the music’s torturous undertone of death, depression and pain.  Overall for an underground local band Saturnine is definitely worth checking out. I really can’t wait to hear their newer recordings with a new lineup, a live show or two wouldn't be bad either.