Leviathan: A Silhouette in Splinters (2005)

One of the only albums I have bought that I truly regretted was a release by a group called Tribes of Neurot.  The album really was not at all musical, it cannot even be said to be an ambient album.  It was much more of a harsh noise release.  So why did I pick it up?  Well, it was on Relapse Records, a label that had never steered me wrong and the description referenced an association with Neurosis, at the time a group I had little experience with other than appearing on a compilation.  And hey, I liked that song.  So I picked it up, and hated it.  It was apparently meant to be played at the same time as one of the Neurosis albums, which I never picked up. 

What does this have to do with Leviathan?  Well, the third Leviathan album is unlike any of the other releases I will be covering.  This is a purely ambient album, with very little sign of the caustic black metal that has garnered Leviathan so much attention.  Now, I did not pick this album out myself, most of the Leviathan albums I have picked up were as part of a box set and this one came with it.  I probably would not have grabbed it myself, had I a choice in the matter.  That being said, this is decent for what it is.

This is a shorter release for Leviathan and contains just six songs.  It is primarily instrumental, with some very distorted screaming at times.  The music is mostly slow-paced with some melody.  There are a few harsher moments but it never really makes it close to the black metal present on the previous albums.  Despite this, it is still an incredibly dark release.  This is definitely not happy music here.  Leviathan has long been able to portray dark emotions in their music and still pulls it off here without the need for the harsh hatred of raw black metal.

I did find this release interesting.  It is likely not going to be one I revisit often when I want to listen to Leviathan and it is definitely far down on my list of my favorite Leviathan releases, but Wrest really does pull this off.  I will still listen to it far more often than Tribes of Neurot though.  At least it has that going for it.