Selbst – Despondency Chord Progressions Review

In the blurred-boundary world of black metal, Selbst is quite special. Possessing neither the cold grit, folk-leaning whimsicality, or vivacious bombast of European and Northern American variants, the Latin American influence instead lends their sound a lilting, layered musicality. It’s been clear from the project’s beginning that this music is both incredibly personal and a way of exploring the darker and more devastating of shared human experiences. This is more true than ever with third LP Despondency Chord Progressions, of which sole composer and member N¹ says, speaking also to the surreal, disturbing art, “From the very moment of conception, all creatures are condemned to the overwhelming indifference of nature, and because of this, to death […] this artwork represents both the beginning and end of our journey. All at once.” And it’s here, on this album, that Selbst seems to reach a level of emotional and compositional depth that even the complex and powerful predecessor Relatos de Angustia didn’t.

If it wasn’t clear, this is a black metal album characterized first and foremost by crushing, hopeless sadness. But unlike its DSBM relatives, Despondency Chord Progressions does not sit placidly in nihilistic apathy, it rages in its expression of the anger, pain, and loneliness at the heart of existence. Channeled most powerfully through the use of melancholic refrains that dip in and out by way of plucks, twisting, warped drawls, and arcing tremolos, it’s the intricate compositions—the almost-off overlaying of cries, howls, and calls, and dire, half-dissonant then suddenly plaintive guitars, the slides and circles back to despondency from fury—that give it lasting, gripping impact. At its most disharmonic (“La encarnación de todos los miedos,” “Third World Wretchedness,” “The Stench of a Dead Spirit”), the out-of-unison guitars maintain a ringing aspiration to minor melodiousness, eventually bursting into it amidst yowls of despair and juddering break-downs in tempo. While at its most delicate (“When True Loneliness is Experienced” “Between Seclusion and Obsession”) it is simply beautiful, albeit, with a lingering unease. New to this record is the extended use of pained, wailing cleans, whose ardent, discordant cries only amplify the dysphoria and the discontent with shivering satisfaction, ironically (“Chant of Self-Confrontation”).

Despondency Chord Progressions is aptly named. Selbst has perfected their distinctive style of miserable, mellifluous black metal. Smooth, warbling guitars, oozily melting over one another and chirruping with fluttering, ever-so-slightly menacing grace, falling down over characteristic throaty howls, multi-tracked as though a chorus of voices were railing in anguished lament. Softly picked guitars fade to warm tremolo with the texture of classical strings (“When True…” “The One Who Blackens Everything”) before it all crashes into a dissonance of almost-mournful, chaotically intricate sections of blackened, blastbeasting fury. The chord progressions are, appropriately, incredibly sad, despondent, weeping even (“When True…,” “Third World Wretchedness”), dripping with eye-rolling, knee-sinking pathos. Emotional power elevates already well-woven songs into the upper echelons of catharsis. While earlier Selbst output leant harder into extended passages either of whirling dissonance or musing blackened meandering, here, there is a noticeable pull, extending through every ebb into quietude (“When True…,” “The One…,” “Between…”) and surge into ardency (“Third World Wretchedness,” “Chant of Self-Confrontation”).

This emotional breadth and depth, in combination with such a compelling narrative structure, makes Despondency Chord Progressions stand head and shoulders above its predecessors. It possesses both the necessary grit, and softening beauty to give it a long-lasting power, and flows easily with little to no need of trimming. Selbst’s releases have tended to lack immediacy, at least in part, and this album is no different. It’s taken time for its hold to grow as tight as it has. However, unlike those other releases, Despondency Chord Progressions is so strikingly gorgeous, and passionate—particularly in its greatest moments—it’s a shorter route to brilliance than with those prior records.

I was saddened to find how apparently little-known Selbst was amongst these halls. Despondency Chord Progressions, if nothing else, ought to put them on the radar of the wider metal-listening community. This is black metal at its most stirring, entrancingly beautiful, and existentially affecting. Don’t miss it.

Rating: Excellent
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Debemur Morti
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: April 19th, 2024