Review Summary: Another day, another Trha album to feast upon.
Damian Ojeda is an absolute machine. The man behind both Trha and Sadness releases music at a rapid pace, putting out multiple LPs and EPs under each moniker every single year. The exact sound of each release must vary based upon Damian’s mood at the time. Trha is based in atmospheric black metal but he has releases that border on ambient, others that border on shoegaze and others that are somewhere in the middle.
Ducel (not typing the monstrous full album title) is the second of 3 albums released already in 2025 and it ventures into a few territories.
Damian has always had a knack for making atmospheric black metal that sounds warm and fuzzy to the core. It's not your typical forest dwelling, tree hugging type of atmospheric black metal. The reverb dripping from the soaring riffage makes it almost post-punk sounding in a way. Damian makes Trha’s music sound like a black metal band that was obsessing over Codeine for a month before recording. The riffs are melodic and melancholic yet eerily uplifting at the same time. Damian’s raspy, throat shredding vocals soar over the riffs like Moaning Myrtle soaring over the girl’s bathroom at Hogwarts.
USBM in general always seemed to be divided into 2 categories. There was the suicidal hymns of bands like Xasthur and Leviathan and then there was the guys that lived in the forest and spoke to the animals like Wolves in the Throne Room and Ash Borer. There never seemed to be any in between. Damian has brought a new element to black metal, USBM in particular, over the past few years that is to be commended. He didn’t conform to the styles that paved the path for him. He stuck to his style and it has paid off for him.
Ducel is an album that straddles the line between the band’s more lush gazey ambient works and the pure black metal bangers. That reverb laden atmosphere mixed with some of the most brutal stuff he has written in a long time will keep the listener guessing and engaged. The atmosphere is obviously a key component here but the riffage is tastily catchy and headbangable as well. At the end of the day, this is just a damn good atmospheric black metal album.
