Review by Lawrence Stillman on November 28, 2023.

Striborg has been known to be a hidden gem of the one man black metal music scene, with his weird and dissonant approach to his music, his affinity for nature, and even his chill outlook on life is pretty unusual for one man black metal due to how misanthropic and mentally messed up the members of one man black metal projects tend to be (Malefic being a misanthrope supreme, Wrest seeing some grim shit in his life etc etc). Sin Nanna's (or Russell as his real name is easier to type here) approach to black metal is less misanthropic and depressing, and instead the soundscape he creates is closer to a call to the lush forests of Tasmania, like an overprotective deity that hates outsiders.

This 78 minute offering from Striborg is definitely the project at its spookiest, and oddly sounds like someone wandering into a forest overlooked by said forest deity at night, and this album is the soundtrack to said adventure in the forest with the deity's supervision. It begins with a droning intro that repeats itself for four minutes, which I like to interpret as the protagonist approaching the forest, with the fading out signifying that he finally encroaches on the deity's forest, with Spectral Trees picking up from where the intro left off. The rest of the album's raw soundscape is just an exhibition of what this weird forest has in store for us, we cannot see it, but the audio can give us a good idea of how it would look once we start imagining it. I'd like to imagine the ending of "As Sad As The Cemetery...." fading out signifying that the protagonist leaves the forest, or if you listen to the 2018 version, the outro track that lasts just over a minute, with the spooky droning keyboards indicating that the protagonist did not make it out unscathed, with "Lurking The Murky Damp Forest" being the track that symbolizes that the protagonist has incurred the wrath of the deity/forest and attacks the protagonist. The lyrics seem to support this too, with Cemetery ending with the protagonist leaving the cemetery/forest and bidding farewell to the spirits residing there, promising to join them once he dies. (Although no lyrics were published for the bonus tracks)

Musically, this album is simultaneously familiar and alienating. Familiar in the way that the song structures are similar to most one-man black metal projects where the instruments are pretty simplistic and droning, but also alienating due to the weird mixing and production (yes this is the production section). The production here is very harsh and raw (but not always), and at its harshest it can be even harsher than most "raw black metal" due to how thin the guitars and how the drums sound like a garbage can (not as bad as St Anger though). Remember how most DSBM projects include noise elements to make their instruments blend in? Well they are absent here, and instead the guitars have such a thin sound that they BECOME the noise, with the keyboards providing an eerie backdrop, and ironically the bass here is not just audible, but it becomes the lead melody by providing variation in this droning song, all this while the vocals are weaving in and out of the song, providing a view into what the protagonist feels in it.

Not going to put much words into the songwriting because one man black metal projects tend to be pretty simplistic when it comes to stuff like this, and the entire album sounds weirdly progressive with how varied the sections can be within a song, while never repeating them. Take Spectral Trees for example (again), it begins with the droning riffs I've mentioned earlier, but 1/3 of the way through it changes into a dark ambient song before repeating the first riff but sped up, and then ending with a blast beat section that gradually fades out. This happens a lot in this album, I was pretty surprised by the variety especially when one of the most accalimed DSBM/ambient records has less of it (Subliminal Genocide).

One thing I have a gripe about this album is the thin guitars, but this is more of a nitpick so bear with me. The guitar tone occasionally changes from one song to the other. I really liked the thin sound from Spectral Trees but once I get to Ghostly Pallid Hand of Fear, the guitar gets a lot thicker, closer to something like DMDS era Mayhem, and the guitars are back in the spotlight, spearheading the song with its melodies (although Cemetary marks the return of the thin guitars). Maybe it is just me but I prefer if Russell kept the same noise-like thin guitars throughout the album, it might have made this album even better.

This is probably the best work from Russell/Sin Nanna, excluding his coldwave/blackwave stuff as they are too different from black metal. If you are still sitting on the fence regarding checking this project out, pick this up as your introduction to Striborg, because if you don't like this, it's safe to say that you might not like the rest of his discography.

Highlights: 'Mysterious Semblance Of Spectral Trees', 'As Sad As A Cemetary In The Winter Darkness', 'Lurking The Murky Damp Forest'

Rating: 9.5 out of 10