Sometimes when I feel the need to sit back and do nothing I choose on selecting the rightful aura of atmospheric music that would fit the silent scenery I desire. However, I think that choosing moody music doesn't always have to be behind a certain outlook as any other would implement it through different stages of the daytime. With that notion I took on the debut album, "Blackness And White Light", of the Austrian artist, RUSTY PACEMAKER. The album was released via Rusty's own label, Solanum Records.

"Blackness And White Light", besides being a solid turnout to pass the time with, has a deep sense of an artistic view. Rusty's perception of distinctive, yet hard, music took me to into the wider ranges of both Rock and Metal. On this album you can forget straightforwardness as it seemed to be rooted out in the favour of harmonies, acoustic features, simpler yet touchy like riffages that gave the impression that emotions were involved and were clouded by a firm lead guitar section that even though wasn't too articulate, it made its purpose. In front of the entire musical process laid the voice of Rusty that in a way revealed his own roots, references and influences like BLACK SABBATH, PINK FLOYD and BATHORY among others.

Even with its rather fine atmosphere as a lead element, I felt that "Blackness And White Light" was missing something, maybe more than something. I can begin with the production that was also made by the talented Pacemaker. In the listening process I seemed to me that the music has no depth, I might even call it lack of flesh. Although I understood that it supposed to reflect darkness, mystery and suspense, I believe that the sound production should have made it a lot fuller that it initially was. Besides the calmer tracks, the lack of depth was even more evident and was deeply missed throughout the album. The long epic, "Mother", for example, made me think that the same lack I was referring to was corrected but as far as it went, nothing was actually done. It was virtually the same on "My Last Goodbye".

Furthermore, with all of Rusty's effort to keep this release as spiritual and emotive, there were a few lapses as it was hard for me to bond myself with his conceptions. Nevertheless, I really liked "My Way" that was equally strong and tender in the same time. Also I liked "Waiting For Tomorrow" and "The Human Race" that both really opened up my mind to new musical outcomes, this album, as a whole, might have turned up to be more than average plus and that is it.

RUSTY PACEMAKER tried to go out of the ordinary as he created something that many would call weird, yet I would call it diverse. Nonetheless, as anything that is new is a sort of a gamble, it was his to take. "Blackness And White Light" is a solid release that would probably calm down the heavier fans of Gothic and Doom Rock / Metal as it will surely sink deep into their energetic mental state. This album is the ground where Rock and Metal take a shared path into a grey zone that is their new horizon.