Висельник (Viselnik) - Smoldering Existence Demo

More of a light sizzle if anything.

(Originally submitted to the Metal Archives on February 7th 2024) 

I do love my black metal, but it’s no secret that it has the worst good-to-bad music ratio out of all the subgenres, especially in the niche of DSBM. For every good band that comes out, there’s a dozen of terrible demo-only bedroom projects that are helmed by one man. Truth be told, that’s one of the first things that came to mind upon a certain someone sending me Viselnik’s Smouldering Existence demo, seeing as it checked all of the aforementioned boxes. Turns out though, I was wrong to assume that. Mostly.

While mastermind Neratoh does on occasion fall in the typical pitfalls of DSBM songwriting, namely dwelling on a single idea for too long, which is especially noticeable in “Illusory Time”, he does actually have a couple of tricks up his sleeve. For one, his drumming is far more involved than just being a more elaborate metronome, with there being some interesting drum flourishes on tracks like “Empty Man” and “Illusory Time”, or the subdued double bass on “Bitter Truth”. It’s not something that is often seen in this niche, and it has the benefit of transforming some rather simple melodies into something more momentous, as seen on the more succinct “Madness”.

That being said, the more ponderous approach does work in parts here, namely on the interludes and the closer, “Ascetic”. Here, the meandering works in its favour because Neratoh somehow managed to tap into that primordial current that helps conjure up some hypnotic, yet at the same time, engaging, riffing. It doesn’t lose its lustre, even after repeat listens, and the subtle female vocals help it stand out all the more. Not to mention that the acoustic version of the song is actually a neat reprise of the motifs that appeared throughout, unlike how most of the preceding tracks ended, which was just riding a previous motif for the last quarter of the track.

I must say though, as someone who isn’t particularly fond of the practice, the “Aion” trilogy of interludes came as a surprise to me, primarily because of how they pace the demo. Each one of the interludes focuses on a different sound and texture, the first one starting off with synths, then moving to an electric guitar, and the last one featuring an acoustic. They provide a lot of atmosphere and help segment the project into different movements, despite the similar nature of the songs. It also helps break up the boredom that would arise from having roughly half an hour of straightforward depressive black metal.

For all of the demo’s faults, I can’t say that Viselnik didn’t put a bit of a spell on me throughout Smouldering Existence’s 46-minute runtime. Cracks did start showing a little on repeat listens, but unlike most DSBM demos, it actually succeeded in enticing me to look into the rest of the band’s body of work, a fact that automatically places it above most of the works occupying this space.

Highlights: Empty Man, Madness, Ascetic

Rating: 65%