2005
Fading Away Into The Grave Of Nothingness
About This Album
Not to be contained by their unusual country of origin, South Korea's Oathean deliver a world-class black metal album with their third offering, the vividly named Fading Away Into the Grave of Nothingness. The band's decade-plus experience has clearly paved the way for the compositionally mature, technically accomplished melodic black metal contained herein, and initial offerings such as "Wandering Soul" and "The Origin" quickly set a template that's almost always speed-intensive, but also diverse enough in construction to keep things ever interesting. Copious layers of ambiance-setting synthesizers add yet another dimension to Oathean's songs, but never overwhelm them like the genre's also popular, fully symphonic format. No, this is black metal rooted in more ancient origins -- a fact which is made clear by the standout "From the Depths of Despair" (featuring a classic metal riff to die for, but slightly let down by a rhythmic breakdown halfway through -- hello, Mr. Producer?), the extraordinarily named "A Life of Suffering Craving the Darkness," and the ultra-gothic, female-voiced semi-ballad "Scent of Longing." And for a nice change of pace from the violence towards the end, Oathean give us Westerners a welcome taste of their exotic ethnicity via the delicate, flute-laden closer "Road to..." -- yet another reason to give this fine disc a chance. [The American release of Fading Away Into the Grave of Nothingness by The End Records added two bonus tracks: a live "In Fear With Shiver" and the oddly named "The Money From the Tobacco Pouch."] ~ Eduardo Rivadavia, All Music Guide
Track List (try tracks 5,7,9 and 10)

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