Empty - The Last Breath of My Mortal Despair (2005)

Dense, cacophonous depressive black metal from Spain. The Last Breath of My Mortal Despair is a diverse record with plenty of peaks and valleys, and a psychotic vocal performance that encompasses ghoulish rasps, deep growls, hoarse shouts, wolven howls, ethereal chants, shivering moans, and whispers. However, in addition to everything that they do right, they do make one major Metal Boner™* in the form of a Seinfeld-style slap bass break right around the 2-minute mark in "Manifest of Endless Sorry in Sanity". Oopsy-daisy. Other than that, this is a severely underrated record. For fans of the more disturbing side of black metal -- Bethlehem, Silencer, (the Swedish) Shining, and the like.

*For more examples of this phenomenon, see the "boioioioioing" breakdown in Taake's "Over Bjoergvin Graater Himmerik III", the vocal break in Agalloch's "She Painted Fire Across the Skyline Part 3", and of course, the bleating saxophone solo on Nachtmytium's "Seasick, Part 2: Oceanborne". Come to think of it, that entire song probably qualifies.

Track listing:
1. The Horrible Drawing Back of the Veil
2. A Source of Hollow Essence
3. The Spectral Paleness of the Skin
4. The Last Breath of My Mortal Despair
5. Mortuary Tune of the Prisoner's Anguish
6. Manifest of Endless Sorrow in Sanity
7. Owner of Wailings

How far I am from all