Review Summary: Blackgaze is back with one of it's best albums in a decade.
Blackgaze is a subgenre of black metal that will get purists pissed the hell off. How dare anyone mix such a sacred, Satanic genre with, dare I say, the beauty and atmospherics of post-rock and/or shoegaze? Alcest was the band that pioneered the sound in the mid to late 2000's and ever since then there has been a massive amount of bands trying to pull off the blackgaze sound and that continues in 2023. Problem is, most bands that have tried to imitate have fallen flat on their faces. Dispar is a one man blackgaze band from Brazil and he's looking to reverse the trend.
Autumn Ends is only this guy's debut (after one demo) and I'm already willing to say that he's better than 99% of Alcest copy cats out there. Dispar is so much more than a copy cat though. Nothing less than sheer emotion, both agonizing and beautiful, can be found in every single atmospheric riff, every single wailing cry and every time you get lost in the drove of keys that are constantly portraying an image of dreamland yet never intrusive. This album is a constant balance of darkness and sunlight, love and loss. Most blackgaze bands fail to keep the listener engaged because of the monotony. There is absolutely none of that to be found here. If you're not being mezmorized by the hypnotic riffs, you'll be lost in the atmosphere of ambient bits and melodic keyboards.
For only being a debut album,
Autumn Ends really sets a high standard for Dispar going forward. When your first release is an album that, in my personal opinion, is one of the most varied and engaging listens a genre has seen in the past decade, you know expectations are going to be high. I can't wait to see what Dispar does with those expectations, but this will do for now.
