Sadness - Circle of Veins (2019)

Originally hailing from Mexico, Sadness is a one-man project that delivers harrowing Blackgaze music in the same vein of bands like Alcest, Heretoir, Falaise, etc. Cranking out more than a five releases in the last couple of years, this outfit is as productive as Cold World and many others. With over 37 minutes of music divided in five tracks, this release is a good addition to anybody’s Blackgaze collection.

Opening with “Eye of Prima”, the band unleashes their best song with a lively and yet bleak track filled with a subtle atmosphere and very engaging clean vocals. This track slowly progresses in to more aggressive territories with harsh screams and a darker pace. Our personal favorite is the dreamy “Cerrien”, a track that is quite intoxicating thanks to its funky atmospheric keyboards and the odd pace. The Shoegazey parts of “Lana”, make it a very entertaining song and quite a delight to hear.

As you can read, Sadness has great ideas and very cool songs that while sounding ‘like another band’ they are still unique enough to give them a distinctive edge over the countless other bands in the genre. The only two things we are not big fans off is the extra fuzzy/low-fi recording quality that tracks like “The Spring Sun On Summer Rain” (and all others have), and the programmed drums that sound a bit amateurish at times.

Overall, “Circle of Veins” is a pretty solid release from a very productive one-man unit. The ideas and creativity is clearly there, it just needs a bit more in the production department and maybe getting a session drummer to take the music to the next level. If you like bands like Violet Cold, Heretoir, Alcest, etc., this is definitely one release you can’t miss out on.

Label: Flowing Downward

Release: May 20th, 2019

Genre: Blackgaze

Country: Italy