Haar - Haar

Self Released 2010

1.Whisper Serenities Eve 2.To Forgive An Enemy 3.Without Form Or Void

Reverb echoes back and forth, the drums quite literally ‘thundering’ during the intro to ‘Whisper Serenities Eve’. You’d almost be forgiven for thinking that Haar are a doom / funeral doom band, the beginning to the song very slow, feeling tortured and quite haunting. It’s only when the main body of the song starts that the black metal sound is introduced, vocals scathing, the pace upped into familiar brutal black metal territory, furious drums and tremolo picked guitars. However, the slower side to Haar’s sound is re-introduced, the guitars being surprisingly heavy in the slower sections yet still managing to retain that air of black metal through the great use of harmony and melody.

‘To Forgive An Enemy’ continues this theme, starting slowly, building the atmosphere whilst retaining an overall sense of being black metal. The vocals especially holding their own, scornful and hateful never straying from screamed BM style, albeit in a very deep, gravelly voice. The mix of doom and black metal working especially well, mixing heavy slow sections with the more familiar ice cold blast which is a great combination. The guitars taking on the familiar high pitched, almost buzz saw sound when being played at their fastest. For such a long track (9m17) it remains interesting throughout, never feeling drawn out or one dimensionally repetitive.

‘Without Form Or Void’ feels slightly different, discordant riffs introduced to give a schizophrenic feel to the e.p. The band describe themselves as ‘Progressive Black Metal’ and maybe the beginning to this track is where they get the ‘progressive’ description from, other than that I can’t hear where their progressive edge is. When the track finds its feet, normal service is resumed with more melody added to the faster sections. Ending the e.p. as it began, the slower doom like riffing is re- introduced, every hit of the drums reverberating back and forth, vocals spoken yet remaining hateful. Summing up it’s slow, tortured and hateful black metal that retains a sense of melody under a swathe of ice cold melancholy. Only 3 tracks on offer but that is more than enough, the overall sound suffocating and full of despair. Worth your time and money for a well packaged and presented self-released digi-pack cd.

7 out of 10