Tardigrada

Tardigrada - Widrstand
Fallen Empire Records, 2012
Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal

1. Ufakt
2. Hoffnungslos
3. Widrstand
4. Einsamkeit












I picked this up purely because of this projects name. The fact that they are from Switzerland falling under the realms of Atmospheric Black Metal amidst many other great bands from that region, helped as well. The name is from a taxonomic class of animals and means "slow-stepper", which is kind of cool as a Black Metal name, even though there are certainly blast beats on this recording and fast guitar playing. The really interesting thing about Tardigrades is they can survive the vacuum of space! I also think the band would appreciate the fact that I am writing this review while sitting in the back rooms of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. I'm sure there are some interesting holotypes in collection somewhere.

I missed out on all the original versions of this recording and I own the 2014 repress. Tardigrada's style of Black Metal seems to fall into a sort of blending of Paysage d'Hiver style with some LLN style. Some of the chord structuring reminds me of that dissonant and tortured French style from those ancient days. They even have a lot of clean guitar sections with, what sort of sounds like footsteps in the background, reminiscent of... I think, Aäkon Këëtrëh. Unlike that project, we do have Black Metal being performed. The approach reminds me of Paysage d'Hiver, but it's exactly in the same way, so it's certainly not a clone. For the most part it creates a decent and cold atmosphere, but there are some riffs, or pieces of riffs, I should say, that sort of sound strange in the mix. There's at least one part of "Widrstand" that pulls me out of the atmosphere due to the way the guitar work is used. Then again, the appearance of Cello on "Hoffnungslos" is simply stunning! For the most part they keep me in a real solid space and they do this to overwhelming effect with the song "Einsamkeit" clocking in at fourteen minutes. It makes me wish the whole recording was of this caliber, because that song is above and beyond the other two, so the demo closes on quite a high note.

While Tardigrada may not be offering much in the way of new material to the genre, I don't feel it adds to the over-saturation and I do want to hear what this band could produce in the future. I would, especially, love to hear what they can do further in the guise of "Einsamkeit", which really overshadowed the rest of the demo for me. Definitely, a great start to this project and I hope there is more to come in the future.