Aylwin's been on a roll lately. They began with a little demo called Soil And Cold near the end of 2012 and have since released two split albums: one with Spanish ambient act Zinvmm and one with atmospheric black metal band Stellar Descent. My favorite has been their split with Stellar Descent. That split is so awesome. Now Aylwin has released another split, this time with post-black metal band Černá. Just to clear up any confusion about their name, Černá come from Kalamazoo, Michigan, not the Czech Republic as I had originally thought. With that out of the way, let's get to the music, shall we?
Aylwin's performance is still just as strong as it was on their split with Stellar Descent. The production has a slight bit of cloudiness to it which helps to create a distinct dreamlike atmosphere. The drums play lots of fast and energetic blast beats like any great black metal band, but they also like to break up the pace by playing some slow jazzy rhythms like those on “Always and Forever”. As usual, the guitars are fantastic. They play a lot of grand, sweeping tremolo riffs that have a slight touch of melody to them. Their riffs tend to exhibit a great deal of emotions. On the last split, they sounded dark and furious, but on this split, they sound rather dreamy and sometimes optimistic. You also got to love the post-rock-inspired clean guitars that they sometimes include. Issaiah Vaca's raspy screams are still as harsh as a climb up the Sierra Nevada during a snowstorm. In other words, his performance is grim and powerful. Of course, it ain't Aylwin until they throw in some sort of surprise, and the surprise they had in store for me this time were the clean vocals performed by Michael Korchonnoff of Alda. His performance on “The Taste of Lips” is so excellent it makes me want to listen to Alda.
And now we come to Černá. They offered up only one song for this split, but it's awesome. It begins with some peaceful acoustic guitars before we're hit with post-rock/atmospheric black metal that sounds much darker than Aylwin's offering. The tempo's slower and the guitar tone sounds more depressing. The drums play slower rhythms, but they still play some great blast beats at the halfway point. I like how prominent the snare is. This means they spent extra time to get the production just right. There are no vocals on this song. Instead, Cody McCoy (love his name, by the way) lets his instrumental skill speak for itself. The riffs he plays are powerful and atmospheric, but also dark and somber. True to the song's namesake, the riffs make you feel like you're lost in a forest enshrouded by fog.
As usual, Aylwin put on an awesome performance and I enjoyed the guest vocals provided by Michael Korchonnoff, but I loved Černá's performance as well, especially when it came to the riffs.. Both bands offer up their own unique blend of atmospheric black metal and post-rock that exhibits a wide range of emotions. If you like awesome, atmospheric stuff, then you'll love this. You can buy yourself a digital copy of this split from Aylwin's bandcamp page for the dirt cheap price of three bucks, so hurry up and go get it!
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