inmyshiver-delicatepoison-reviews

Review from Chronicles of Chaos Webzine

Fri, 24 Oct 2014 00:19:09 +0100

From: Chronicles of Chaos

Published: October 18, 2014

We usually dig Italian bands; they own a certain irrefutable charm, tagged with a singular sonic aroma indigenous to the boot-shaped country, a land of tumultuous history and mystery galore.

However, In My Shiver are an anomaly; the band offer nothing in terms of the Italian grandeur and sonic depravity we're accustomed to, and while they use a dual approach to their music -- that is to say both harsher black metal tones and more laid back depressive rock maneuvers -- neither is convincing or captivating enough, and when combined, the hybrid adds nothing unique and is devoid of an added value of any kind.

The confused texts, written in somewhat bad English (again, why the hell not in the band's own mother tongue, Italian?!) contribute to the goofiness of the sonic structure and are hard to follow (some will even make you cringe), but the weakest point of the album is the uninspired and lame songwriting and its ultimate execution. Using rehashed ideas and some exceptionally bad song structuring / song aesthetics, the alleged brooding atmosphere the band wanted to create here has missed its mark by miles.

Both black metal and dark rock had never sounded so tedious and powerless, until this album came into being. Some flimsy, superficial musical material is on display here; that kind of music was passable just because of the popularity it had gained in recent years, and the reawakening of the whole depressive / shoegaze / dark rock trend; mix that with some dubious "metal" elements and you've got what is known in 'hipster language' post-black metal.

Not that there's anything wrong with post-black metal per se; genres, styles, scenes, aesthetics and trends are, in themselves, neither a positive nor a negative notion, for the mere act of pigeonholing a band's style has never diminished nor enhanced said band's music. It's the music that does that, never mind the path it choses to tread. Here, on _Delicate Poison_, the music is just not good enough. Doesn't matter where you look and how deep you may want to explore this album (you probably won't be interested in that), all you hear is a musical weakling, devoid of ideas, energy or passion; an emotionless dead horse that will leave you apathetic and empty.

In My Shiver know how to handle their instruments technically, but time and again they miss the target, failing to deliver even a single good track. It's either they don't posses the know-how, or are perfectly oblivious to terms such as atmosphere and emotions in music, both created and emanated, or they were too busy pleasing a wider audience with a musical product that verges on being pop music, and not very good pop music either.

Hypnotic Dirge Records, a label we respect for its hard work, vision and excellent releases, should invest its hard earned cash in other, better, musical ensembles; rumor has it there are plenty of those out there.

Rating: 2/10

Reviewed by: Chaim Drishner

Review from Forgotten Path Magazine; Issue 6

Thu, 25 Sep 2014 21:26:41 +0100

From: Forgotten Path Magazine; Issue 6

Published: November 2014

Magazine Website

Although In My Shiver present themselves as a DSBM/Depressive Rock band, they do not sound anything like Grey Waters for example. On the internet the band is given the Blackgaze label often, which is more appropriate in my opinion. There’s very little Shoegaze in this album and it has a Black Metal core, but there’s an abundance of Alternative Rock elements as well, such as clean vocals, which remind me of Anathema.

It’s puzzling how one reviewer gave an 80% rating for “Delicate Poison”. He calls the album “warmly bleak”, but I do not see “bleak” as an advantage here. It sounds empty, there’s nothing gripping the listener, no honest uniqueness. Sometimes honesty creates an impression of individuality, but here everything is based on the same formula - riffs, programmed drums, predictable compositions. I guess the atmosphere is that “warm” part with its light, melancholic feeling, but that’s about it. If Rock influences are more preferable to the band then it’s best to skip Black Metal elements altogether because it’s not working out so well. Moreover, the lyrics seem to be no third-rate Brutal Death Metal type, but they are trite nevertheless, e.g. “Only enslaved from the unreal colours! We hate, we trust, we are gray. Nothing now it’s human, sounds, perfumes, memories, all dragged in unique purpose; Cancel the light!” (from “Into the Gray Line” song). The words convey the fragility and dreariness of life, but in a very pseudo-philosophical way or at least it sounds like that in the context of these monotonous songs.

“Delicate Poison” has no specific features to distinguish itself from any other similar band. Obviously, In My Shiver is still in search of its unique sound. Yes, it’s safer to stick to what’s known rather than try to invent something of your own, but without an individual trait the band won’t get far.

Rating: 5/10

Reviewed by: Bloodie

Review from Necromance Webzine

Thu, 25 Sep 2014 21:02:25 +0100

From: Necromance Webzine

Published: September 21, 2014

Original Link

*Google translation of Spanish review

The seal Hyptonic Dirge Records makes us their most recent editions among which is this "Delicate Poison" , 2nd work of Italian IN MY SHIVER , a band that did not know at all but has left a good impression after hearing this album, consisting of 6 songs where the band has created a musical hybrid of black metal depressive and avantgarde more modern cut and where we can hear a good combination of excellent quite worked melodies and aggressive parts marked by times somewhat faster and that Black metal smack in the melodies and rhythmic enough sugarcane crushing and base. In the same way as with the instrumental symbiosis, so with voice registers, as the band, according to their music makes use of various vocal registers along all the work, using the most ripped and aggressive parts in the sugar while in the moments where his music takes those more experimental or depressive dyes lean towards clean records or other more melancholic court. We are in a job that when I hear it, brings to mind musically to bands like Katatonia, Ulver, Solefald, ... and all that cast of bands who combine masterfully a foundation Black metal with a more modern sound but Depressed court and jointly create the feeling of despair and melancholy that grabs you and invades from the first cut to the last.

Rating: 70/100

Reviewed by: David Déniz Square

Review from Metal Maniacs Webzine

Wed, 13 Aug 2014 08:42:08 +0100

From: Metal Maniacs Webzine

Published: July 24, 2014

Original Link

Founded in 2010 in Camerino, Italy, which I had the pleasure to visit (I have a passion for travelling), one beautiful small town where is located a University that was founded in the Middle Ages. One place I recommend you to visit, if you’re around, of course, In My Shiver is a, well, how could I describe the band? There’s no label to describe it. It’s an amalgamation of styles, black metal, post-metal, depressive rock. The band has released two full-length albums, one in 2010 titled “Black Seasons” and the sophomore “Delicate Poison” now in 2014.

The album, as I’ve mentioned before, features several influences and genres, including some shoegaze in addition to the ones I’ve already cited, and, in my humble opinion, it turns the album into a rich musical pilgrimage in a captivating landscape created by In My Shiver. The duality of black metal and its aggressiveness and piercing mood and the post-metal/ depressive rock alluring almost tranquil and almost fragile-like atmosphere is the highlight of “Delicate Poison”. It is very well-balanced and would please fans of both styles. I personally would enjoy the album just a bit, tiny more if there was more experimentation, but, other than that, I have nothing but praise for this release.

Obviously “Delicate Poison” has a melancholic and gloomy feeling, almost claustrophobic, with clean, almost Gothic vocals as well as Black Metal shrieks, which are almost calming, weird, isn’t it, the extreme vocals sound a bit relaxing to my ears. The guitars sound very atmospheric and the whole production is much more than satisfying. This album is indeed a very emotional one, as they should be when it comes to this “musical style”, but it’s not something easy to be created and these Italians managed to do this with immense refinement.

So, if you enjoyed the band’s music on Bandcamp, I kindly ask you to do what is in your hands, what is possible for you to do. And I wish that the band will release more and more music in the years to come.

Rating: 9.2/10

Review from IYE Webzine

Mon, 21 Jul 2014 17:08:06 +0100

From: IYE Webzine

Published: July 15, 2014

Original Link

*Google translation of Italian review

With their second album, the Marches In My Shiver , again, the metal audience with a work not easy decrypt.

Delicate Poison is in fact the ideal title for a job that comes with great aplomb and good fluidity to sound more persuasive, that go to graze the post metal, blast beats to outbursts in which, however, are never an end in themselves, while remaining firmly anchored a melodic structure carrier.

Emerge sometimes due to certain depressive moments, obviously not what exasperated tones but its watered down version and darkeggiante and there are even passages that, instead, have a black avant-garde with melodic and atmospheric belonging to Katatonia past (as in the opener Closed View ).

research of a constant progression within individual songs, while it should be applauded regardless, on the other hand sometimes makes the proposal too fragmented; the use of clean vocals show more than one occasion the rope, as it does not always rise to the instrumental performance.

Better, then, when the sound becomes more direct in part, with several references to the Forgotten Tomb ( Liquid Hour ) and most cloaked in its own charming patina dark ( Into the Gray Line ) Delicate Poison is a hard amply sufficient but that might aspire to excellence if it was just more organic and more firmly oriented to the development of the brilliant ideas that are produced; a song like Empty Wealth proves emblematic regard to the attitude of the trio Marche, alternating moments really good, especially the more black-oriented, at some stage of the interim too. Same cover of Lullaby by The Cure, post closing of ' album as a bonus track in his version download, commendably differs from the original version so as not to apparirne a simple didactic reading, and in some ways is the proof of a modus compositional certainly not trivial, but that, in this specific case, seems almost excessive in its dogged pursuit of an unconventional approach. even though his versatility on display in this work, a more decisive turn in favor of a specific stylistic, preferably one from a darker tone and direct, however, could allow good In My Shiver to make the final leap.

Rating: 6.8/10

Reviewed by: Stephen Cavanna

Review from Pest Webzine

Sat, 14 Jun 2014 20:29:28 +0100

From: Pest Webzine

Published: June 1, 2014

Original Link

One of the weirdest conbinations of genres I've heard lately... In My Shiver mixes Post-Black Metal with Depressive Rock and the result is quite ok although hard to digest. Traces of Black Metal are few and not so important in the whole, there are only a few hoarse shrieks, a few parts with Black Metal guitar riffs and blastbeats, but that's about it, the rest is pretty far from Black Metal and even from Metal so I don't know what will be their niche after all, who will enjoy this album to a point of following the band. I guess open minded persons in search of something new will enjoy this second full-length from in My Shiver, it's an interesting perspective on the Post Black Metal movement, who knows if it will influence other bands or if it will die here... As far as I'm concerned this is pretty original stuff, so worth giving it a try.

Rating: 8/10

Reviewed by: Adrian

Review from Aristocrazia Webzine

Sat, 14 Jun 2014 20:27:54 +0100

From: Aristocrazia Webzine

Published: May 31, 2014

Original Link
*Google translation of Italian review

In My Shiver is a completely new name to the undersigned, as some of you may have already known four years ago, at the time of the debut album "Black Seasons." It is a trio arrived at the Marche second album, now on Hypnotic Dirge Records.

Define a single label music composed by MKh979 (vocals, guitar, drums), Asha (guitar) and Lux Occulta (low) would be an understatement, as well as very difficult, because the content of "Delicate Poison" is made up of several pieces of various sources, but assembled so as to ensure an outcome rather homogeneous and compact. We are dealing in general with a dark-Depressive metal rock "robust", whose touchstone in terms of atmospheres that sound could be assured Woods Of Ypres: You're bitter reflections on the existence, often meaningless and empty, and difficulties in interpersonal relationships, distorted and compromised by the masks we wear.

Within "Delicate Poison" live two souls: the violence of black metal, which is located in the screaming and some feral acceleration, and delicate features, poignant and ethereal (also acoustic) attributable to rock in a broad sense. As if that were not enough, there are also touches mentioned avantgarde post-black metal and references to the latest Forgotten Tomb. The album expresses a certain suffering in an almost "quiet", just as stated in the title, and do not ever transcends self-injury on the slopes typical of the DSBM scene, preferring a creeping melancholy and as already mentioned, intense sound full.

Moving from "technical" to a critical evaluation, it should be pointed out that "Delicate Poison" is a sort of constant flux, whose motion is not affected by numerous handles cross within the pieces, consisting of rhythmic variations and atmospheric, from deadlifts or the crescendo of pathos. Is so difficult to cite individual tracks particularly representative, since the whole unit prevails and missing elements that characterize such a point in a piece to make it stand on the other. This is not necessarily a flaw, but it gets the light of today's music scene, in which you need songs that capture the immediate attention of the listener "hasty" and then lead him only at a later time to the entire album.

The duration of the compositions on the other hand is a sore point (almost fifty minutes, broken into six pieces), because I believe it is justified by the rich alchemy proposal: in short, a snip of a couple of minutes per song would have allowed lighten up a little 'l 'listening, that on the final weight out, also because of the repetition of solutions almost identical, as in the case of the clean vocals ("Empty Wealth"), which tends to become slightly cloying. Surprisingly, instead of the battery has been programmed at a good level of diversity and dynamism, well above the average of the outputs, so some imperfections in the more fast paced or are easily overcome; clearly, and it is trivial to write, an instrumentalist in the flesh would allow further improvement.

The In My Shiver and "Delicate Poison" live on the border between the world of the extreme sounds and more accessible, a lot of tricky territory, but never expire in the banality dell'orecchiabilità at all costs and even give proof of great strength. Furthermore, the difficulty nell'etichettarli is already a symptom of a winning recipe, in addition to the tastes and personal preferences. All this leaves open a wide range of solutions for the future, but today allows to offer a pretty wide audience: those who love to contamination of black metal with shoegaze fans of Katatonia (able to endure the screaming). As long as you take the necessary time to metabolize a disc far from immediate and able to grow with the passage of audience.

Final note for lovers of digital albums: Hypnotic Dirge Records label allows for a few weeks to download freely from its catalog page Bandcamp and then decide the amount to be paid in return.

Reviewed by: MI

Review from Moonspell Rites Promotion

Sat, 14 Jun 2014 20:26:30 +0100

From: Moonspell Rites Promotion

Published: May 10, 2014

Original Link

However the debut 'Black Seasons'(2010)didn't impress me much,as missing the lack of diversity in the way the band described their style,as assuming the band noticed this as well.With their 2nd record there is a large differene comparing to the debut,and actually sounds more adult and professional,with the large amount of influences in the record,which makes it a record that actually never really gets bored.With this Hypnotic Dirge Records once again has another great release in their pocket,breaking through in name as a high respected label in the Underground scene.

What we can find back in the tracks are the diversity in styles such as Black Metal/Shoegaze/Depressive Rock all in all combined perfectly,and filled with necessary emotions.The album actually rocks,and the drumwork is just fabulous,going along with the rhythm filled up with some really groovy elements,clean (sometimes hypnotizing)vocals in the syle of Agalloch fo example,and some really atmospheric guitarwork.You really can notice these Italians really paid good attention to the details.You even can hear back som hints like for example the band Forgotten Tomb.

After 'Closed View' and starting with 'False'i am sitting on the point on my chair 'cause of the excitement.They are doing a really good job keeping you by the attention,and without losing it,they grab you by the attention and take you through the album,full of anguish,despair,and honesty.Once again i have to point out that the guitarwork has been changed to something more adult and diverse,and really have thought of the details this time.Hopefully the fans don't have to wait for another 4 year for a new album to appear,on the other hand maybe for the better,and release another brilliant record like this one.Another highlight is a duet between clean and Black Metal vocals.What also really nice to hear is the use of the guitaramps here and there,and the use of some tones that really fills up rest of the music.

On track four 'Into the Gray line' on the album reaches some really great highlights,and therefore my most personal favorite one.Every detail is worked away in it.Blastbeats,depressive rock,as some really brilliant power chords worked away in some part of the song,versus slow melodic lines combined with some excellent special effects that really takes you off track for a while in a dreamy atmosphere.

The production is more than good,and every single instrument can be followed perfectly.Tight drumwork,solid basslines,excellent guitarwork,and fabulous vocals,which seems they also worked 'til the details on.The record simply rocks,and well forth the effort checking this band out.Simply a record of high quality.

Not sure what to expect from them in the near future,but seems it looks bright.If you purchase this record,you can go ahead in music for many many years,without getting bored of the album.

Rating: 98/100

Reviewed by: D./MRP

Review from Lords of Metal Webzine

Mon, 12 May 2014 14:19:54 +0100

From: Lords of Metal Webzine

Published: May 1, 2014

Original Link

In My Shiver is an Italian post-black metal group and this Delicate Poison is their second album to date. The band seems to have a bleak outlook on life, as the music they play always contains a certain melancholy and sombre atmosphere. Stylistically they incorporate many shoegaze elements into a foundation of black metal. The black metal part of this release is reminiscent of bands like Lantlos, Alcest, and Katatonia. Often the vocals are clean and show a slight gothic touch and although proficiently done they come across as slightly lacklustre. Probably, done intentionally. Their experimentation is rather limited and when developed more, could have set Delicate Poison really apart from other releases in this style. Now the songs contain too much of the same ideas. Still, In My Shiver has made a competent album, which only just falls short of being excellent

Rating: 77/100

Reviewed by: Roel de Haan

Review from ZWare Metalen Webzine

Thu, 24 Apr 2014 19:36:32 +0100

From: ZWare Metalen Webzine

Published: April 22, 2014

Original Link

*Google translation of Dutch review

Comes from Italy In My Shiver, a trio that debuted in 2010 with the disc titled Black Seasons which was limited to the market via a Korean label. Early this year, the sequel came out, presented as experimental shoegaze black metal.

The black metal is fairly fundamental to the base of Delicate Poison . Sometimes messy sounding, yet often propelled by old-fashioned black metal rhythms, especially from the drum unit. The numbers are relatively long which is unfortunately what is lacking in variety. The shoegaze elements where the band is talking about, I also heard elsewhere better. It seems like In My Shiver music that wants to actually not quite mastered. Especially in the song Into The Gray Line seems to play given.

In terms of end product is a bit of a gray mass, suspended between plain black metal influences and experimental twist that gives the trio it. The groove of the songs is listening to the album, however, relatively boring. Many of the same matter, no real highlights and experiment is reasonable correctly referring. There is often talk about bands like Amorphis and Katatonia as comparative bands to new fans of In My Shiver attract them to do these Italians may be considered to be not nearly the same level.

Rating: 60/100

Reviewed by: Martijn Korremans