A wizened obituary for an artists rendering of his self, erased of ego, and still held fast within the post-astral projective glow of self-liberation persists throughout French musician Blurr Thrower‘s first official ritual. Wanton in his movements while easing into defeat with every passing minute, the bareness of ‘Les Avatars Du Vide’ applies a great void of resonance that surrounds the two extended performances within. Atmospherically encased in a great tomb of steel and concrete lacunae, dried and scraped of any remaining fetid life, yet still stinking of biological rot the geist of a tortured and cursed being seeks only to prolong the darkness of the past and the void of the self. The reverberations produced by Blurr Thrower are impossible to misinterpret; Each piece is a cold disembodiment, a sighing anxietous death both luminous and suffocating as the ritual ends in the void of space.

Unseen, unnamed and unsurprisingly unrelated musically to both Spazztic Blurr and Bolt Thrower the occult atmospheric black metal of Blurr Thrower brings a distinct ‘Cascadian’ black metal influence as it shapes into more elaborate forms of atmospheric black metal akin to modern movements out of France and the Netherlands. Though there is some natural crossing over between groups like Fluisteraars and Ash Borer ‘Les Avatars Du Vide’ hits the margins of depressive black metal tonality in addition to sounding like a reasonable crossover of the aforementioned groups; This provides a stark and immobile presence, a sedentary darkness that pulses with mournful energy. Some of this effect comes from the application of certain expected guitar techniques which still rely too heavily on predictable slow builds and crescendo for effect. Despite this there is clear directionality implied in each composition that may feel ruminant but, all vibrations stream forward.

To find comfort in an artists cries of pain atop music created to resonate gloom is unnerving but not impossible to be desensitized by. The full listen is hazy, hard to remember, a fade in and out of consciousness without rapt attention. The moment I was ready to engage with the guitar driven movements that shape ‘Les Avatars Du Vide’ it felt as if I’d shifted into stasis, some sort of extreme torpor where only the start and the finish occurred in motion. It isn’t a chilling, cold listen but an uncomfortable bout of depressive majesty, spoken in confidence. The spark of ‘Dead as Dreams’ informs the drifting misery of Blurr Thrower and should please fans of both depressive and the ‘Cascadian’ sound but this EP feels yet formative and not as well conceived as top tier acts like Iskandr or Spectral Wound. This EP shows great promise and should have equal appeal to fans of atmospheric black metal’s occult and depressive spectra. I found it spellbinding with some attentive listening and fairly dry on casual or background listening. To be engaged during any listens is recommended, and I can definitely recommend checking this album out. Moderately high recommendation and for preview I suggest the 18+ minute first track “Par-Delà les Aubes”.

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