Hailing from Belgium, this Post Metal band has released two previous full-lengths. “The Radiant Vale” is their third. “Usil” is the first song. It comes out of the gate with heavy weight, darkness, and tension. It seems to grow even bleaker as it moves along, and there are some creepy background noises. With no vocals to latch onto, you have to work harder to hear the various nuances in the music. “Turms” has more pace and energy behind it, and the darkness begins to spread. It starts at the corners of town, and eventually, it’s everywhere. Those harrowing background elements are still there, and so far, the album has a starkness that is woven throughout.

“Turan” is a short, three-and-a-half-minute offering that is very somber, and much of that feeling comes from the slow pace, and the depressive tones in the guitars. “Cel” has thick, meaty bass notes leading the charge, and the landscape it paints is one of absolute hopelessness. For me, it feels like traveling north until all that you see is white with snow, and all you feel is the icy grip of the cold which never subsides. “Tiur” begins with some creepy atmosphere, at that cold, dark place you traveled to just gets colder, and darker. Do not look for absolution on this album, for there is none. “Laran” paints a landscape of absolute desolation. Nothing green grows, and no one lives past its borders. The fuzz of the guitar notes seem to echo into eternity.

“Tinia” has some lighter tones, but don’t let it fool you…they are still crushing with the weight of loss, and regret. Each note seems to add another nail in your coffin. “Satre” is the final cut, and as if the album couldn’t be drawn out more with frigid tones, this song hears the days turn into weeks, and years. There are still those eerie background elements that keep the song alive, but at its core, it is decaying. Overall, this was a positively doomed album that reveled in tones of grey, black, and stank of death…that cancerous smell is something you can never get out of your nostrils. They displayed a life of loneliness, hopelessness, and regret, to which there is no going back.