Wistful by Sylvaine Review

Greetings, Vanessa here, finally back with a new review. Today I want to talk about a huge influence of mine. Sylvaine is the project of Katherine Shepard, who is a Norwegian multi-instrumentalist and has so far released four albums. Today I’m looking at her second album Wistful, which was released in 2016.

Delusions starts with a beautiful choir, sounding like right out of a soundtrack.
Reverberated notes with heavy reverb sounding almost like they’re flying through space. Then distorted, yet mellow guitars set in with drums and bass. The overall atmosphere of this song reminds me of a foggy morning in a forest.
The voice is just so beautiful, leaving me spellbound. There are moments where there’s just guitar and I find myself getting lost in the reverb, it’s just such a soothing sound.

Earthbound presents us some harsh vocals, backed up with some angelic choir.
The song itself has this beautiful Blackgaze vibe. Even in a blast beat section, it stays in a softer and more mellow tone.

A Ghost Trapped In Limbo starts off with a wonderful post-black section, again featuring these beautiful vocals. Some clean guitars follow, leading into a buildup to the second verse. I like these moments. The clean guitar section leading to the end is one of my favourite parts on the album.

Saudade is a relatively slow song, even for an album that is generally pretty downtempo, and again features these angelic choir-type vocals. Despite being the shortest song on the album, I still think it drags on a bit too long.

In The Wake Of Moments Passed By is another song with harsh vocals, after which Like A Moth To A Flame starts off with all its melancholy. One of the most soothing songs on this album.

The album closes with the title track Wistful, which is the most relaxed song on the album, consisting of slow, heavily reverberated guitar arpeggios and vocals. Some strings throughout add a wonderful texture.

All in all, this album is a great adventure into post-black metal with some nice atmospheric touches throughout. While I absolutely love this music and totally understand that it needs some room to sort-of breathe, I do think it sometimes feels repetitive and could definitely be a bit shorter in a few sections. The first three songs plus Like A Moth To A Flame are definitely my favourites, especially Earthbound.