Dead River Runs Dry - Winter 2012 [Demo]

Dead River Runs Dry is a freshly forged, and burgeoning new black metal project by Dan Nahum, the man behind many other Australian black metal projects, including the newly flowered Azoth and Bleakwood, all of them successful churnings of reliable, consistent and somewhat aggressive qualities of accessible black metal of high calibre, despite the lack of attention they are all receiving. Although all of Dan’s projects are relatively new to the scene even though the mastermind himself remains a veteran of the genre’s aesthetics, and with his talents he is able to construct yet another demo for his newest project Dead River Runs Dry, four tracks of constant black metal, each overflowing with vigorous catharsis, erupting into brusque, disseminating rupture and keeping the trail they flow along pure and unmarred, avoiding many of the genre’s deterrent clichés.

The name of the demo suits the brevity of its musical traits, being simply entitled, ‘’Winter 2012’’, which obviously calls upon the frigid windstorms and environing bleakness that it projects. The demo is not exceedingly concise, and thus within that short time it captures a good amount of attention. The most entertaining thing about this demo is that it simply reflects bleak, desolate landscapes and blasts out garrulous black metal franticness at the time, leading to a diverse anatomy, one that neither too arduous to comprehend nor too simple. The demo serves swerving, overt black metal without hesitation, and the production supports the angular changes in the atmosphere, having a somewhat dry, yet loud consistency, and in order to tighten the grasp on the vivacious, frenetic authenticity of the aura, the demo will often switch abruptly into a hooking chug, or perhaps a less intense chord attack.

Dead River Runs Dry embraces its gelid, solemn expanse but exploring through deep, grandiose feelings where the level of emotion reaches its climax. Although such patterns are rare amongst the blazing barrage of brazen tremolos and harried outbursts, the band does give a fair measure of room for such sections, and the most emotionally tainted track is probably ‘’Dying Gleam Of The Sun Eternal’’, sombre and entrancing while delivering a mournful array of lurching, ponderous tremolos, dispersing the atmosphere into a fragile landscape, all of a sudden. All in all, Dead River Runs Dry is a very worthy release and a considerable alternative to the waves of black metal bands, and thus, the power of the Australian metal scene has once again been proved, crushing all the competition with an iron fist. Along with this demo, Dan Nahum’s other projects are also highly recommended, each of the same nature, but surprisingly variant. 

Highlights:

Way Of The Plunderer

Dying Gleam Of The Sun Eternal

Rating: 80%