CHIRAL is "music for the loners," and materialized in 2014 in Italy; a one-man project of Atmospheric Black Metal. Matteo's first full-length, "Night Sky," was released in 2015, and now comes "Gazing Light Eternity," a four-movement album concerned with "the evolution and perception of the perpetual flow of time, on men, places, and memories." The album has a total running length of about 40 minutes. "Part One (The Gazer)" is a near-fifteen minute opening track. It first presents a depressing sound, complete with Black Metal vocal atrocities. The main riff climbs a scale of two separate three-note patterns that use both major and minor chords. The cold lyrics "I gaze this black eternity at my will...inhale it to fulfill my lungs...this night woodland is my home now...I'll enshrine it till the day I breathe no more" tell the tale of "The Gazer." Unfortunately the pattern is fairly repetitive for such a long song, though some more ambient passages towards the end are a nice touch.

"Part Two (The Haze)" is much shorter, but still very much an agonizing theme, as the lyrics go "everything just stays...everything just flows...no one would care...and on one has ever known...so let it go...set your corpse to rest amongst the Blackwood eternity." As the duo contemplate time, they talk about how "the moment seizes us," rather than "us seizing the moment." This is a very atmospheric song that really embodies the concepts on the album, with a tantalizing melody line that sounds like you are walking on the wind in a never-ending dream. It is quite celestial. "Part Three (The Crown)" is a thirteen-minute song; a slow moving sound that is calmative, even among the fierce Black Metal wails. The chord pattern does not change once again, creating a hypnotic effect of sorts. Black Metal isn't supposed to be overly dynamic, but even a little shifting here might improve some of the monotonous aspects of this approach.

"The Hourglass" is a six-minute instrumental closer, capping the end of the exploration into the concept of time. It flows by gently, with a pensive disposition, hardly making a mark as it passes. Sitting quietly in the forest, it is like a breeze sweeping past you as the rays of the early morning sun announce the coming of a new day. The impact of this sound is not felt in your heart or in your head, but in your soul. Overall, this is a solid album, though I wish there were just a couple more tracks that could explore the concepts a bit more, and a little more variance in some of the longer tracks would have brought them to life further. As it is, it was an enjoyable listening experience and I am sure fans of the Atmospheric Black Metal scene would enjoy this as well.