Siorai Geimhreadh

Solitude

Self Financed 2007

Primitive yet atmospheric black metal from the emerald isle is what Siorai Geimhreadh brings us on their four track Solitude album.  This is their second release though I have not heard their first so I cannot make comparisons between the two.  One of the first things I notice is that even though Siorai Geimhreadh are from Ireland, they haven't shamelessly plundered their Celtic roots for lame and forced sounding instrumentation like so many others have done.  Instead they concentrate on making their music traditional yet misanthropic in a way that is both atmospheric through the riffing and malignant in its attitude.  Each track consists of strong and confident guitar riffs at breakneck speed that call to mind darkened forests and wave smashed cliffs.  Solitude is an album that evokes Nature at its most cold and forbidding.  With the songs being fairly lengthy and the riffing being somewhat similar on each one occasionally they tend to blend together for me though the slow intro to A Wandering Moment and the plodding build-up in An Endless Winter help break up some of the repetitiveness.  Sometimes the drums are overpowering in the song but usually this is not too big of a problem.  The vocalist does Varg(Burzum) proud with his tortured screams of agony.  They are hateful and forlorn at the same time.  Siorai Geimhreadh's music is best absorbed when alone as the album's title would suggest.  It lends itself to a need to escape from other humans and the distractions that modern life force upon us misanthropes.  Frigid and depressing like a grey winter's day, Solitude beckons the listener to their premature death amongst the snow drifts where their corpse will be entombed in merciless ice.