SPACE OF VARIATIONS - Skamham (CDEP)

2020 release. In rousing dark euphoria, Danish progressive black metal enigma (0) [pronounced: 'zero'] lifts the veil for their debut album SkamHan, a lucid dream wrapped in growling dark melancholia. Seven explosive and oppressive tracks presented in a frenzied mania blossom into a hallucinating mixture of black, drone and post metal spiced with intense sludge and progressive influences. The opening track, ôTydere End Hudö, infatuates with intoxicating riffs and forceful growls, drawing its listener into the somber void. Blasphemy, pain and gloomy nothingness dominate the luminous expanse of SkamHan and symbolize the extreme soundscapes in an opus of darkness. The eponymous track crucially grows to a cathartic vibrating atmosphere and ruptures in energetic parts due to the agonized, bloodcurdling growls. The atmospheric expansiveness of the final track, ôAlle Rensesö, reminds that the routes of (0) remain labyrinthine. The elusive quintet bites the ear of the listener and drips with blackened obscurity.