A Liminal Heart Paints the Deepest Shade of Serenity by Vampirska is is one of those records I listen to and think ‘Yeah, I’m never going to be able to justice to this with a few hundred words’ as it feels like nothing I can write could ever capture the absolute naked emotion that flows through each one of its seven tracks, because quite frankly, A Liminal Heart Paints the Deepest Shade of Serenity is a bloodthirsty onslaught that will smack the ever loving shit out of your perception of reality and leave you a beaten, broken corpse on the floor.
Musically, Vampirska is very much old school black metal, but it is superbly done. It’s like being stuck on a mountain as an avalanche is hurtling towards you and you cannot get out of the way, and as the living earth consumes you in a frozen tomb, the last thing you see before the lights go out is the face of death, growling and screaming into your eyes and ears as the world around you goes black.
That’s probably my favourite part of this album, the fact that Vampirska uses their vocals in such a way that it becomes part of the deluge that swallows you whole. A prominent part, no doubt, but they are of the music and not seperate from it. They are another weapon within this battering ram of a record and they are as relentless as every other intricate piece that makes up the grimoire of A Liminal Heart Paints the Deepest Shade of Serenity.
And it never lets up. Not for one second.
From the opening track, Dejection of Ares, a Downward Spiral of Infernal Desire…, to the last refrain of The Memories of Drowning, the Shadow of Living in this Disease… Nothing to Break the Cycle, Vampirska crafts a piece of music that is a tortured, dark, majestic triumph of the soul that rebels against itself.
It bleeds anguish and agony from every note, from every strangled howl. It is as raw as an exposed nerve, as painful as a festering wound, and yet, somehow, still manages to be as beautiful as a winter dawn when the world around you is silent and still.
It is a walking contradiction. A living, breathing monument to the madness of the self and all that it sees around it. And I fucking love it.
Head on over to the Vampirska Bandcamp page and pick up a copy of A Liminal Heart Paints the Deepest Shade of Serenity for yourself.
