Review by Felix on September 16, 2020.

17 years ago, the German underground unit called Mordgrund released 300 copies of this 7”. I am happy that No. 174 leads a comfortable life while having a safe place on my shelf, only interrupted by an excursion to my turntable every now and then. Both 'Gottlose Dunkelheit' and 'Sehnsucht nach Ewigkeit' deliver generic black metal with a pretty complex and multi-layered song structure. Whirring guitars with a harsh basic tone form cold and lightless leads that dominate the sound of this vinyl. Neither the raw vocals nor the varied drumming can challenge the guitars. Especially the voice does not have adequate space. However, this blemish can be ignored, because underground productions do not suffer from imperfection – quite the opposite. In particular their little weaknesses give them their special charm, not always, but sometimes.

The here reviewed single with its wintery, stylish artwork is one of the pretty charming releases. The songs do not fall victim to a lack of substance. Instead, they are meticulously designed, energetic and uncover a surprising maturity for a then new band. Influences of the well-known role models are more or less a matter of course. The rolling leads of Darkthrone and the spooky atmosphere of early Mayhem are ingredients Mordgrund don’t want to miss in their own sound. They also master the art of creating minimal melodies that rather spread demonic vibes than pleasant harmonies. Thus, only a very small number of sequences is at risk to go nowhere. Usually, the formation stays on target. Summing up one can say that the cleverly and variedly arranged tracks avoid repetitiveness and boredom successfully.

Mordgrund’s last output - their only full-length - dates from 2010. From this follows that I am sceptical whether or not the band still exists. Moreover, it will probably be difficult to find a copy of Gottlose Dunkelheit to buy. Nonetheless, if you are interested in typical, manually crafted Northern black metal, you should try to get in touch with this release and / or Mordgrund in general.

Rating: 7.7 out of 10

Review by Krys on July 30, 2002.

Advertised as “a unique blend of Thrash, Epic and Symphonic Black Metal” Apotheosis is a one-member band that was born from a fascination of ambient, electronic music and the atmosphere of early ‘90’s black metal. Sauron’s debut album “Farthest From the Sun” is a collection of just 4 tracks (from which two are reworked promo songs) but clocking in at almost 51 minutes.

Opener ‘Victory’ is a 6-minute-plus computer orchestrated tune based on simple, not to say primitive, samples running in loops. Amazingly it creates quite a pleasant atmosphere before ‘The Maimed God’ that strikes with blast beats and typical blackish screams. ‘Raise the Dragon Banner’ influenced by the old thrash school incorporates piano loops, ‘cosmic’ computer effects and a pleasing but elementary guitar lead. The album closes with the epic ‘Kingdom’ which is over sixteen minutes. Like previous efforts, this track combines many music styles and showcases Sauron’s already impressive arrangement talents but lacks anything that could make it stand out in the crowd.

My biggest problem with “Farthest From the Sun” is musicianship. While I can appreciate the effort of trying to complete an album on your own there’s no way under the sun that one man can be efficient in all instruments and represent the same high quality skill level on each one of them. Because of that, the whole album, while full of good ideas, sounds amateurish and shows a deficiency in the skill department on the ‘real’ recorded instruments, not to mention that most of them were done by computer to start with. Apotheosis’ “Farthest From the Sun” is an interesting collection of songs based on computer samples and effects incorporating essential elements of many metal styles, but only with improved instrumental skills the future releases might become something more than one more fish in the sea.

Bottom Line: “Farthest From the Sun” is not an album that requires your full attention to grasp every detail, it’s more like a Sunday movie, after long night of partying when you want to relax and have some fun without forcing your brain cells to unnecessary work. Primitive but enjoyable.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 5
Atmosphere: 7
Production: 7
Originality: 6
Overall: 6

Rating: 6.2 out of 10