Hisstönend
II

What I am about to review today is a very particular album, wonderful in its atmospheres but tough to listen to, and surely very few people here will agree with my opinion regarding the first Full Length of the Russians Hisstönend. II (called so because it's the "sequel" to the demo I) is an album of atmospheric Black Metal, composed of 6 tracks (the last of which is a 17-minute beast) for a total duration of 50 minutes. Right from the start, entrusted to the 2/3 minutes of Forest Gates, the album takes us into a sort of concept album about the forest (hence the name of the first track is perfect), with an extremely accentuated atmospheric component, also given by the practically OMNIPRESENT ambient samples, with sounds of waterfalls, animal calls, rain, wind, etc. The Black component is made up of melodic riffs and almost always arpeggiated, very "ambient" and fitting, with the underlying drums doing its job well, and a voice that I consider perfect for the context, sporadic, whispered, and heavily reverberated. Overall, II does an excellent job, it takes you into woodland atmospheres recreated very well, and if you listen to it with your eyes closed in the middle of a forest in autumn it's in its prime. Unfortunately, however, many people, not accustomed to certain genres, will consider it tough or even heavy to listen to, due to a characteristic typical of the band: Hisstönend focus a lot on prolixity to immerse the listener in the atmospheres they want to evoke with their records, and II is no exception (just to say, Forest Gates is formed by a single guitar riff). Personally, I really like this detail because it does its job perfectly, but I must admit that it may not appeal to everyone for this reason. In the end, it's up to you to decide whether to listen to it or not, and if you want to listen to it, you need to understand it, only then will you be able to immerse yourself in the atmospheres that these Russian guys want to evoke...otherwise there are Winterfylleth.