Sear Bliss - Forsaken Symphony CD Review

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2004-04-14 : Baletempest
One of the best Black Metal albums I've ever encountered, brutal enough to bang your head to dust and at the same time it has the kind of majesty that up till now only Emperor could truely deliver. Sit back in the dark and drift off into infinity or brood on the pure Black Metal hate oozing from every second of this magnificent CD, it is just that good
2003-11-01 : Chris
I'm going to go out on a limb and call this the best black metal album I've ever heard. Everythng here is just so right, from the production to the use of the horn section. The atmosphere is so perfect, and the production fits really well. Standout track: "My Journey to the Stars."
2003-09-05 : pm : Link
SEAR BLISS - FORSAKEN SYMPHONY (9 song CD) RED STREAM RECORDS
SEAR BLISS has unearthed & delivered us one of their best efforts to date! These guys play hungarian ethereal Black Metal & play it extremely well. They are in no way your typical Black Metal band either! They have a strong wintery, cold & sinister feel through out their whole album. They have developed some more keyboard work into their sound, but have also added in a tuba & brass section. The music is super fast, atmospheric, dark & left intentionally raw. The vocals are done in a mid ranged Black Metal type growling style with some occassional screams tossed in. This is a must for any fan of raw intense & well played Black Metal music!!!
2003-08-02 : Anonymous Coward : Link
On "Forsaken Symphony", Sear Bliss play an odd blend of raw black metal, spacey keyboards and bombastic symphonic elements, spewed out across epic-length songs and beneath stream of conscious vocalizations that stay away from the typical anti-Christian themes that most bands of this ilk fall back on. There are elements reminiscent of early Emperor, latter-day Abigor, and even some of the early work by German atmospheric death metal band, Crematory, but everything has a sort of gentle, drugged out wonder about it, and there are even some downright soothing sections (the keyboards at 3:30 of "My Journey to the Stars", for example) that give the band a unique flavor. "The Forsaken" is easily the highlight of the album, taking the listener through a megestic cosmos of slowly rolling chord changes and somber brass sections. The effect is not one of blackened brutality, but of awe, the mystery of the unknown, ancient travel.

Quite an effective trip... Muxlow

Standout Tracks

My Journey to the Stars
The Forsaken
When Death Comes
2003-01-12 : Patrick
SEAR BLISS 11 / 13

Forsaken Symphony

Red Stream

Wow, this must be the second coming of Hungarian crew! I vote for it as the most memorable comeback to the older Black Metal days of the band, as well as the best album since the debut, if not ever! Fuck, it hits the ears a bit! If you look above, I’ve already buried the Black Metal origin of them, and suddenly they strike again with that old spirit. Damn surprising! Another strange thing that nothing else but keyboards have knocked me out first on this record! Huh! That’s in times when I prefer raw and berserk stuff more than anything! I guess the way they use this instrument has drown attention: the same kind of keyboard sound is audible in the latest live recording of My Dying Bride. Well, a bit better actually. But Sear Bliss have greatly incorporated that into their already enhanced by trombone sound. So, this kind of Black Metal is fully epic, yet it does not disturb to bring in some violent moments as well, unlike their previous records that quite lacked it. Maybe a small surprise but these guys on this record remind me Nahash a bit. At least I feel the same strength to reach the other worlds with it, at times maybe understandable only for the performers, but otherwise it is not hard for perceiving music.

Well, biography suggests that the main songwriter Csaba of Phantoms, their debut album, has returned to the ranks, so that has influenced the structure of this record quite a bit. Well, that’s for good! As a matter of fact, this album comes as a damn surprise; I guess all the Sear Bliss fans that have moved away from them will return to the band now, firmly!
2002-12-20 : Patrick
Review from EXTREME NOISE MAGAZINE (Australia):

SEAR BLISS 'Forsaken Symphony' RED STREAM Clever chaps, those Hungarians, to give their band a name that to the careless ear might sound like 'Sheer Bliss'. Anyway, beyond their curious nom de guerre, there's always been something mysterious about this group and the off-kilter black metal that they have conjured up. When their debut, 'Phantoms' emerged in 1996, few would have imagined that brass instruments would ever be an auspicious omen on an extreme metal album. Yet somehow the combination worked, and the release captured the imagination of many who weren't accustomed to mulching about in the underground. 'Forsaken Symphony' is a continuation of the trajectory that the band started back then, beginning with an ice-swathed keyboard introduction before throwing itself into a blast of fog-ensorcelled madness. The guitars buzz away in the background much of the time and the vocals are faintly ridiculous, but it's the distant synth and trombones that make this such a rewarding listen. Forging an ancient, glorious atmosphere, proceedings often reach an epic intensity that would make Summoning envious. 'Forsaken Symphony' will whisk you off on a tempestuous journey through mysterious, windswept climes. Nick Moberly
2002-12-16 : Azathoth/Dark Fortress : Link
"Forsaken symphony" is absolutely excellent. For me personally it reminds me on the first two killer records of Norwegian Gehenna.
My favourite track is "Eternal battlefields".
All in all this album is for me on one step with their amazing debut "Phantoms".
2002-12-06 : Patrick : Link

Subj: SEAR BLISS REVIEW !
Date: 12/6/2002 7:15:19 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: "Music Extreme"
To:
Sent from the Internet (Details)


Hi guys from Red Stream Recs!
Here is Federico from Music Extreme (www.musicextreme.com ), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Here I am sending you the review that I did of the Sear Bliss CD that you sent me. This review is online since November 15th and it looks better on the website with the cover art.
Thanks a lot for your support!!!
Federico
www.musicextreme.com

Postal Address:

Federico Marongiu/ Music Extreme
Billinghurst 2380 2-A
(C1425DTV) Buenos Aires
ARGENTINA


SEAR BLISS - FORSAKEN SYMPHONY (Red Stream Records, 200)


Produced By: Sear Bliss

Tracks: 1- Last Stand, 2- My Journey To the Stars, 3- She Will Return, 4- the Vanishing, 5- The Forsaken, 6- When Death Comes, 7- Eternal Battlefields, 8- Enthralling Mystery, 9-The Hour of Burning

Cover Art by Kris Verwimp


Here we have a great combination of raw and unpolished aggressive black metal with excellent melodies and orchestration. This two different styles contrast a lot on this recording because Sear Bliss has no desire to mix them in any other way. This is like a game of collission between styles that make this hungarian band unique. Here we have the raw sound of the guitars play the fastest parts along with the bestial drumming and then on the slower parts the guitar start doing more melodic riffs and the keyboards orchestration enters adding a darker side to Sear Bliss music. Plus here the band uses a brass section and tuba in order to achieve even darker passages than before and they have succeeded with that. Sear Bliss is a band that has all the elements of black metal and have retained the spirit of this kind of music while searching for something new.

Favorite tracks: "The Forsaken", "She Will Return" and "Enthralling Mystery"
Contact: www.redstream.org
2002-12-05 : Patrick
Awesome blackened riffs and the cymbal work in the background is awe-inspiring - very much in the vein of FROST or SATYRICON. I cannot forget to mention the calibre of cold-heartedness in the vocals - excellent, excellent! (Online December 4, 2002)
2002-11-16 : Lethe Warden
Sear Bliss

Forsaken Symphony

(Red Stream)

Sear Bliss is no newcomer at all. "Forsaken Symphony" is the 5th release of this proud Hungarian band in 6 years of activity and by far it truly represents an important step in its carreer. From a certain point of view the album stands as the perfect missing link between the band's past and present and it successfuly closes the circle opened with "Phantoms" in 1996, bringing back a good amount of that primordial aura of blackness which bled from the debut. No doubt this is at least in part dued to the come back of the former guitarist Csaba, as anyone may see by paying attention to the songwriting features (his touch is unmistakable). Anyway, with time the band has grown up and its musical proposal has become much more mature and various. Sear Bliss makes its way through a symphonic black metal with raw guitar sounds and production, on the lead of a classic like "For All Tid" by Dimmu Borgir: good riffs and majestic keyboards partitures (much improved with respect to the previous albums), together with well-studied tempo-changes contribute to create peculiar atmospheres and good variety among the songs, while Andras' rough and powerful growl underlines the widespread sense of suffocation and awaiting and stands as a guide through the fascinating oneiric concept meant to link each song with the next. Songs that perfectly fit the obscure and martial mood created by arioso and dreamy (somewhat feverish) melodies. Among the best episodes I would surely enlist "The Vanishing", "The Forsaken" and "Eternal Battlefields" (probably, my favourite at all!). At times boombastic, at time aggressive, at times highly evocative, "Forsaken Symphony" really succedes in drawing an alternative dimension worthy to be explored in the deep!

7,5/10
2002-11-06 : Nokturnal Myst : Link
Sear Bliss Forsaken Symphony probably the best album I ever heard is very unique and proud to call them my freinds Andras Nagy is amazing vocals
Hajra Magyarok
Magyar Black Metal Halalig
2002-10-27 : Patrick : Link
SEAR BLISS

"Forsaken Symphony" CD

(Red Stream) 9 tracks - 63:28

I am happy to see that Sear Bliss has taken a step forward with their 5th album, becoming more professional and better songwriters than what has been the case on their previous albums.

"Forsaken Symphony" is a piece of black metal that in the sound can seem more "back to basics", as it is raw and unpolished, still keeping a more bombastic sound with keyboards, tuba and a brass section (!). Saying that, this is not a melodic album at any rate, it is just a good Black Metal album, that has a good variation in pace, being it somewhat faster and rawer parts, to the epic parts, especially prominent in a song as "Eternal Battlefields", which is my favourite on the album.

I think Sear Bliss is one of Eastern Europes most developed extreme metal bands, and their long history shows all along their search to develope also their music, without escaping from the original path.

Check out "Forsaken Symphony" and give it a few listens, as it might take that before you get the hang of it.

7 / 10 (by Haavard Holm)