Receiving a review is always a strange experience for me. When you spend roughly a year alone writing, recording, arranging, producing, mixing and mastering an album, you inevitably become very close to it. You know where every sound came from, why a particular instrument enters at a certain moment, what a lyric means to you, and which seemingly insignificant detail took hours to get right. And because of that, it is not always easy to know what remains of all those intentions when the music finally leaves your hands. That is why I always find it particularly meaningful when someone listens carefully enough to discover something beyond the obvious.
Evanescent Horizons has now received a review from Rock Hard Italy, earning a 8/10 rating, and I was genuinely moved by the way they approached the album. They describe it as reaching “even higher levels of quality” than Horror Sacri, but what means even more to me is what they chose to focus on: the expansion of the sonic world, the different nuances, the contrast between oppressive darkness and more expansive instrumental passages, and the movement between elaborate baroque elements and more experimental sections. They specifically mention Gaslight Elegy, The Parchment Night and Farewell To The Angel Of Sardis as examples of these different approaches.
But perhaps the sentence that stayed with me most is the one at the end. They write about compositional and interpretative qualities, technical preparation, and, most importantly, my inclination towards “original and distinctly personal solutions.”
That is something I value enormously. I have never wanted Darkwave to be simply a technically competent version of something that already exists. I have many influences, of course, and I have never tried to hide them. But the whole point of the project has always been to find my own musical language — even if that language sometimes becomes strange, excessive, dark, quiet, orchestral, extreme or difficult to categorize. So when someone listens to the music and recognizes that attempt at individuality, it means a great deal to me.
And perhaps this is what makes independent music so strange and beautiful. There are countless musicians working away in relative obscurity, often with very limited resources and very little visibility. From the outside, much of this world is almost invisible. But occasionally the music reaches someone who listens closely enough, and suddenly that invisible connection becomes real. This review was one of those moments for me.
I’m grateful to Rock Hard Italy for taking the time to listen to Evanescent Horizons so carefully and for putting their impressions into words.
You can read the full review below, the English translation followed by the original Italian.
Rock Hard Italy — English translation of the review
With Evanescent Horizons, the stylistic approach under the Darkwave name (a progressive death metal project rooted in the fervent creativity of Hungarian artist Zsolt Némethy) reaches even higher levels of quality than the already excellent Horror Sacri. The sonic landscapes explored have been expanded and enriched with new nuances, while maintaining the dark and decadent character of the previous works. Darkness, with its many poetic, artistic and existential implications, has guided the author in the creation of compelling scenarios, expressed through structures capable of combining a sense of oppressive negativity with expansive instrumental passages. These demonstrate remarkable versatility, ranging from the most elaborate baroque elements (Gaslight Elegy) to daring experiments, such as those that characterize The Parchment Night and Farewell To The Angel Of Sardis. Némethy’s compositional and interpretative qualities emerge from the listening experience with striking force and are thoroughly convincing, confirming his inspired creative vein, technical proficiency, and a marked inclination towards original and distinctly personal solutions.
Rock Hard Italy — Italian original
Con Evanescent Horizons la proposta stilistica a marchio Darkwave (progetto di estrazione progressive death metal riconducibile alla fervida creatività dell’ungherese Zsolt Némethy) raggiunge livelli qualitativi ancora più elevati rispetto al pur ottimo Horror Sacri. Le lande sonore esplorate sono state ampliate e arricchite di nuove sfumature, pur mantenendo inalterata la connotazione cupa e decadente dei precedenti lavori. Il buio, con le sue molteplici implicazioni di natura poetica, artistica ed esistenziale, ha guidato l’autore nell’elaborazione di scenari avvincenti, che si esplicano attraverso costrutti capaci di unire un senso di opprimente negatività ad aperture strumentali di ampio respiro, in grado di spaziare con evidente duttilità dai barocchismi più elaborati (Gaslight Elegy) ad azzardate sperimentazioni (quelle che caratterizzano, ad esempio, The Parchment Night oppure Farewell To The Angel Of Sardis). Le qualità compositive e interpretative di Némethy emergono dall’ascolto in maniera prepotente e oltremodo convincente, confermandone la vena ispirata, la preparazione tecnica e una marcata vocazione per soluzioni originali e spiccatamente personali.
