Venus Star - The Dark Victor (2011)

   Probably the feature that makes the Finnish underground scene more interesting compared to other scenes (especially the Swedish and Norwegian ones) is the intention and courage to do things different, and to show other perspectives. It's basically the opposite that could be experienced in neighbor countries, where most bands kept specific style features like dogmas, making their whole scenes sounding alike and eventually predictable and boring. Finnish black metal always have been pretty easy to distinguish from Norwegian black, and Venus Star, a lesser known and underrated one man project intended to introduce another alternative for the genre.

   Black/doom as a style pick was already a promising idea, since the subgenre is rare, and therefore still could offer possibilities that haven't been heard yet. It's also important to mention, that unlike in case of most Eastern European bands, the style pick different from ordinary black metal didn't occur because the musician(s) lacked the skills that would be necessary for black metal. Because usually this is the reason why many Eastern European bands ending up playing thrash/black or black metal with middle speed. Pretty heavy, down pulling, doom influenced riffs could be heard on "The Dark Victor", and the sound by not being atmospheric as it used to be for black metal, is pretty advantageous for these themes. By the assistance of the unfriendly cawing vocal style, the main impression is similarly demoralizing like in case of sludge/doom bands. Again as usual, the lack of any aesthetic features combined with noisy sound giving a way darker tone, because there's no relief for the listener, nothing emotional or human-like to hang into. The more intense songs on the album also operating with pretty basic themes. Even though in this form the music doesn't reflect old school sound, the primitive themes still including some old school related touch, like if the album was a reinterpretation of the whole concept. Approaching black metal from doom, or reverse. Raw, compromise-less musical minimalism at its best, might become potential favorite for the fans of black/doom and sludge/doom metal.