CD, The Eastern Front, 2006
www.bisclaveret.com
The Polish Bisclaveret has released four albums up to know according to the overview on Discogs. Their own website mentions two more releases in the past and two other upcoming releases planned for 2007. So we can conclude that this duo is quite active and productive. But at the same time it always gives me goosebumps because a lot of really productive projects tend to give in on quality in comparison to quantity. Now the question is, does this also count for Bisclaveret?
“Psyche noMine” has six tracks and plays for a little over 50 minutes, which is a good size for a CD. The style of the music falls within – as I tend to call it – “oldschool dark ambient”. Eerie, hazy atmospheres with lots of reverb and background noises, symphonic arrangements with violins, piano and cello’s and a creepy voice which isn’t audible enough to fully hear and comprehend the vocal part of the compositions.
So the answer to the question in the first paragraph can only be “no, the quantity doesn’t cause the quality to decrease”. The “Psyche nominee” album has a constant dark atmosphere and they are very obviously a project that will be growing even more in the future. One can hear that this is a product made with a lot of conviction. Admirers of Swedish dark ambient and black/death/drone metal (the album has a lot of influences from metal too) should consider purchasing this.
There are however a few things that should be said, which should be read as positive criticism towards the next release. Most important is that Bisclaveret should try to experiment with a few more different atmospheres. The CD has only one style to offer, while experiments with rhythms, drones, sounds and different guest vocalists would add a lot of dynamics. Personally I miss these dynamics a bit and probably the grade would be much higher if there was a bit more variation. But as stated before, this is still the beginning and maybe I’m completely wrong because after all, this is the only Bisclaveret album I’ve heard up to now.
[6.5/10]
— Bauke van der Wal