Disclaimer: This label is a subset of ATMF, which is a label that seems to have some NSBM on their roster. Use caution before buying.
Blackgaze is a hard genre of metal to write correctly. The usual formula is shrieked vocals that are rather low in the mix, an endless barrage of trem-picked riffs, blastbeats, and little to no bass presence whatsoever. In short, it’s not very interesting. Daughters of Sophia have taken this approach but somehow have made it even less interesting by two factors: removing the vocals and extending the album to 80 minutes, making this hard to peg as anything other than glorified background music. Occasional melancholic passages creep up throughout, making me pay closer attention to them, but they fade as quickly as they arrive into the abyss of tepid, generic blackgaze.
None of this music is offensively bad to listen to, it’s just very uninteresting. I get what Daughters of Sophia is trying to do though, and that’s to paint a picture of tragedy without words, and I can see fans of other bands in a similar vein such as Falaise, An Autumn for Crippled Children, or early Deafheaven enjoying this. My main problem with this particular approach is the lack of compelling passages in the songs. 80 minutes is a long time, and to fill it effectively a band needs to make sure that this is music worth coming back to time and again. This time around, Daughters of Sophia have not made that record. Perhaps on future releases and with a distinct trimming down on song lengths can they make that truly special blackgaze album.
