review: Sertraline

Sertraline

From Both Our Hands

July 5th, 2019

Hypnotic Dirge Records

1.Hounds of Avarice 05:54

2.The Knowledge of Trees 06:02

3.Entwined 07:17

total time 19:13

In only 19 minutes, three songs, the band manages to impress. The first song “The Hounds of Avarice” is loaded with melancholy and it feels more like an instrumental, due to the sparse vocals; at the end it switches to a blasting black metal segment. The speed part seems out of place because it broke the melancholy for no good reason, other than to glimpse fast black metal. This first track seems like it is two songs held together by a single time frame. Either way, it’s good, sounds good. The second song “The Knowledge of Trees” goes to the black metal, the atmospheric, melancholic type that jumps into blasting speed, all the while carrying the melancholic sound. The recording seems like the band wanted the sound of real drums (this review cannot confirm this information) and real instruments in general. It’s a solid, do-it-yourself black metal recording. “Entwined” closes it out. The last song summarizes the band’s take on black metal that bends melodies towards melancholy. This song is an illustration of the consistent use of melancholy with the black metal, and as a consequence the music is DIY gritty, but still shows a bit of elegance in the execution. It is not polished and fancy, as you would achieve with a bigger budget, but it is surprisingly smooth on the ears, including the vocals, which do not seem overly harsh on the ears despite being extreme. This is all probably due to the band’s experience in their craft, given that, according to Metal Archives, some of the members of this band used to be in Where She Wept (now defunct), which began in 1999 and did four albums and four EPs, amongst other works. This is Sertraline’s second EP, and the question to which all of this is leading is: Is there a full-length album in the works? Anyway, this EP by the New York State band is an attractive listen for fans of DIY U.S. atmospheric black metal.

hypnoticdirgerecords.bandcamp.com/album/from-both-our-hands-2