Turia - Degen van Licht (Wednesday Review)

Expectations are an extremely dangerous thing; on one hand, you get everything you wanted and more. On the other, a completely different direction is taken and it feels almost ruined. Rarely is there a happy medium between these two things. Of course, there are examples of this, like on Turia's split with fellow Dutch black metal band Fluisteraars in 2018. Entitled De Oord, the writers here at PMMetalGuide were astonished by the high quality, long-form atmospheric black metal the band had presented. We had been aware of the group's existence since 2017 when they released Dede Kondre, but the second of two splits released a year later put that almost to shame. This was filled with, at least, for Turia's "Aan den Golven der Aarde Geofferd," brutally cyclical swirling riffs that spurred our anxieties and pummeled our eardrums for nearly 18 minutes. De Oord was so strong, we listed it as our seventh best album of 2018 and the best black metal album of the year. With such praise, we were ecstatic to hear both contributors to that project were releasing solo material in 2020. What a time to be alive, we thought.

Degen van Licht, or Sword of Light, is the newest album, from Turia, releasing only five days from this being published. Wait, what about that spreadsheet of releases you have been piling up since January? Who cares?! We have more from one of the most exciting newcomers of the late 2010s with a brand new project that is sure to match, if not top their prior releases. Their upward trajectory could surely not be interrupted, right?

To start off our formal review, we will discuss two tracks: "I" and "II." How original. I really don't like intro tracks, which "I" is, or interlude tracks, which "II" is. I understand thier purposes; "I" leads the album off into "Merode," and "II" closes the album with "Ossifrage." They are interesting enough but I have a strong feeling that adding two minutes to the first track and three minutes to the last track would upset no listeners, and it to me seems like an unfortunate attempt at procuring more streams. If Turia truly has an artistic vision regarding the inclusion of these two tracks, I can respect that, but I do not find that the case at this point. 

Moving onto "Merode," the first actual track on Degen van Licht, what fortunately shows itself is a noisy, tumultuous roil of atmospheric black metal that Turia is so damn good at. An infectious chord progression drives this cut, and as their contribution to De Oord, this track shows a repetitive yet engaging sound that I have become so familiar with when spinning projects by this group. "Met Sterven Beboet" shares these qualities and provides and provides angular song structures that leave me yearning for more twists and turns. The often hypnotic quality Turia's music showcases is as apparent as ever on this track, and if the whirling guitars and pounding drums don't do it for you, you won't ever enjoy the group's music. My only issue with this track is its extremely abrupt ending. While I hate fadeouts, I do not want to riff to just stop out of seemingly nowhere, which "Met Sterven Beboet" does after reprising its opening riff for about a minute.

The title track, however, is less entertaining than its predecessors. Its mesmerizing but ultimately uninteresting. While I respect the mellow style the song presents, over its entire nearly nine-minute runtime, it seems like it is building to a climax or riff that never comes, and the track fades into oblivion as easily as it was awoken. "Storm" faces a similar issue, and its cool chord progression isn't enough to save it from being one of the less memorable tracks on the album. Its length is to blame for this, but also its boring choir chants toward the latter half of the track. The final cut, "Ossifrage" is a 'perfect' mixture of the duality of the sounds on Degen van Licht. The first and last sections of the 12 1/2 minute closer are extremely similar to the two tracks before it, while the mid-section returns to the ripping black metal that resembles "Merode" and "Met Sterven Beboet." The final two minutes of this track are pretty, symphonic guitar chords with some chimes thrown in that are very Turia-esque, but don't really add anything to the track itself.

Degen van Licht is a step back for Turia, as much as it hurts to say. While not completely deserting their sound, it seems they are diving head-first into the soupy swirling trance music that bands like Mesarthim kill, all while replacing the synthesizers with monotonous guitar loops. The first two real songs are bangers, but the rest fall beneath the reverb to just be forgotten until the next good black metal album rolls around. While I am still going to spin this release a lot, I might go back to Dede Kondre and De Oord for the Turia I really want.

Final Verdict: 'Their plea, unheard. Disaster would result'

Favorite Tracks: "Merode," "Met Sterven Beboet"

FFO: Laster, Fluisteraars, Yellow Eyes

Track List

1. "I"

2. "Merode"

3. "Met Sterven Beboet"

4. "Degen van Licht"

5. "Storm"

6. "II"

7. "Ossifrage"

You can support Turia by purchasing their music from their Bandcamp