Starless Domain - ALMA

STARLESS DOMAIN - ALMA (Aesthetic Death - CD 2020)

I'm not quite sure what should I write about this album. And whether I should praise the band for such unorthodox and different take on black metal or should I rather slash them for their one dimensional and cacophonic style... Anyway, the band is called Starless Domain, it's a three piece from USA. And "ALMA" is their second album (their debut "EOS" is also from 2018).  

"ALMA" contains one, 44 minutes long song, which feels like a psychedelic trip into vast, unknown cosmos. It is very experimental, ambient and atmospheric, but also very harsh and chaotic stuff. Right away I need to answer the question - is it anything good? For me, it’s not really anything like that. Depends if you like to hear 45 minutes long cacophony. Because this is how Starless Domain music sounds like. It is a cacophonic, obscure, insanely unlistenable and unfriendly material. This one song has no signs of something like a song structure, there's nothing what would help you memorize at least one fragment out of this long cacophony. And from start till the very end it all sounds like a pointless guitar butchery on the very fast pace, where you don't even know what the riff is like, with some insane screams or yells of the vocalist... There's no order or method in this madness, no sense... Damn, it is rather a real survival and challenge to hold on to the end. Maybe if you take some mushrooms it will be more "pleasant" and more possible to complete the album... But honestly, "ALMA" is very tiring and simply boring effort. This song is so damn long, but Starless Domain plays the same shit over and over again, there's very small attempt to diversify this track (mostly in the beginning and very end, where they do a more ambient music)... Their style is rather hard to get into, I cannot even think of another band, whose music would be so annoying and torturing. Sure, it is very extreme, there will be people, who will "like" (haha) such musical chaos... Maybe in smaller dose I would appreciate it also. But come on, this is a pure torment and the longer it lasts the more annoying it becomes. Sure, Starless Domain, just like such Darkspace, plays quite original and untypical music, but believe me – there's nothing in it what would make me want to play it again anytime soon. i just have better things to do in my life and better albums to listen to. 

Verdict: 50/100