Xasthur - All Reflections Drained

In Black Metal, non-commercial one that is, production values are non existent so to speak. Most bands are allergic to the idea thinking it's an act of heresy to spend some money on such a "useless" thing, or they simply cannot afford this "luxury" for various reasons. But what most forget about is that Black Metal depends highly on the sound rather than anything else, for it is the main factor creating the record's atmosphere.

There is a massive misconception regarding sound production (from editing, to mixing and mastering) in Black Metal. Most artists link the term with nice sounds, polished frequencies and fancy/soft outcome.
Truth is, recording in your bathroom or at the biggest recording studio on earth, when it comes down to Black Metal, sound and atmosphere are the main keys for an album's success or failure as there is barely any emphasis on the musical skills and instrumentation. Many Black Metal records received a cult status based solely on the way they sound, like: Oath of The Black Blood - Beherit, Vampires of Black Imperial Blood - Mutiilation, Transilvanian Hunger - Darkthrone, to name a few.

Xasthur is one of those projects that highly count on atmosphere rather than anything else. And, like all its previous releases, All Reflections Drained is primitively recorded using the most simplistic means to set up a sound of misery, despair, melancholy and hopelessness. When one thinks of these words, certain hallow yet murky sound becomes anticipated, which this record paradoxically dismiss.

There's an over-saturation of bass frequencies creating a wave eclipsing the guitar sound throughout the entire album. The bass guitar is way too present in the mix and backed up with low tone keys which adds more low frequencies/rumblings to the record and renders the sound into a faceless creature with occasional feedback presence due to the exceeding amount of reverb used on all tracks. The absence of almost any treble makes the album begs for some space so the instruments can breathe and emerge a bit to the surface.

Drums - lacking any production value - could have added more air to the record instead of working as a distracting factor standing on its own away from the rest of sound layers.

Although the above mentioned points apply to the entire record, the sound level does not. All Reflections Drained has the first three tracks with a lower sound level than the rest. Occasional editing flaws rear their head on tracks like Masquerade of Incisions (5:30, 8:32, 11:14, 15:18) and Obfuscated In Oblivion (1:21, 2:09, 3:15, 4:21) which could have been avoided with a minimal effort.

There's nothing wrong with self handling sound production in case of lack of money or when one has some of the required skills to do it. In Xasthur's case there's no reason to do it as Malefic does lack the skills obviously and Hydra Head is no small or a poor label to cover the expenses.

All Reflections Drained fails to deliver the needed sound for its full expression.