Style: post-metal, atmospheric metal (instrumental)
Recommended for fans of: Aesthesys, Caspian, Explosions In The Sky
Country: Belgium
Release date: 14 February 2025
I feel bad for any band with fewer than four members. It seems like every single person, upon finding out the lineup, is obliged to comment “Wow, I can’t believe this was made by so few people!” Well, I definitely believe that Black Narcissus consists of only two musicians, but not in a bad way; the two-man scope allows for a careful balancing act whose precision might be lost in the chaos of a larger band. There Lingers One Who’s Long Forgotten has the feeling of an intimate chamber performance with a limited audience, its sound shaped by the natural acoustics of a small concert hall. In their recital, Black Narcissus unite a particularly ambient emptiness with the semi-darkness of post-metal, arriving at a middle ground that seems like it should inherit the best of both worlds, but this collision of styles doesn’t always turn out as harmonious as expected.
As Black Narcissus put on this private performance, the biggest feature that stands out is their unique timbre achieved by using bass as the primary melodic instrument. For example, at around 5:15 of “Draped in Ivy, Guilded by Time” comes a moment of light, ethereal harmony that’s difficult to imagine being achieved with a typical guitar-first roster, but also sounds totally detached from the low rumbles normally associated with bass parts. In contrast, “These Hands That Build” or “In Throes of Increasing Wonder” each open with more traditional low, clear bass sounds, placing heavy emphasis on what would normally be a rhythm section of drums and bass, with only minimal attempts at a melody using the bass’s higher range. Even then, clearing the middle frequencies of raucous guitar tones leaves all the more space for rich bass to shine through and finally receive the attention it has long deserved. Later in the album, “Something Strange and Eternal” and closing track “A Story and a Friend” take a slightly different approach, still highlighting the low bass in places, but also taking care to steadily develop more and more thin layers on top, building up the initial ambient atmosphere into more substantial melodies that nevertheless retain the core beautiful, expansive experience that began each track.
This two-member project is also a tale of two distinct albums: one heavy post-metal pile of distortion and one atmospheric chillfest. Jarringly, the seams between these two faces of There Lingers One often run right down the middle of a track, jumping from spaced-out ambiance to weighty distorted despair in a blink, only to do the reverse a few minutes later—like Jekyll and Hyde at a shoegaze festival. The opener “On This Twilight Evening” feels especially off balance as the first touch of that heavier side enters at the 3:30 mark with little transition or fanfare, a non sequitur to everything that came before that moment. While the final third of the track shifts into a compromise of mobile, lightly fuzzy melodies against a soft background, the track as a whole feels divided and unfocused, a theme that will continue throughout the album. Opening the second half, “It Calls, It Beckons, It Guides Us Through the Gloom” makes the same error, laying out alternating scenes of pastoral countryside and storm-lashed cliffs next to each other with little obvious rhyme, reason, or musical connection from one to the next. Where There Lingers One’s longest track could have been an opportunity for deep development of one cohesive mood, we’re instead left with a jumble of disjointed parts. Some of those parts may be individually ear-catching, but their summation detracts from the end result rather than adding to it.
As my part of the world transitions from a frigid winter into a spring drenched in snowmelt, these internally conflicted tracks put me in mind of a cold morning after a night of warm rain. Wispy clouds slowly gather around the music, until a cold, dark wind blows through, driving them away and dispelling the ambiance; equally, those misty mornings lack something of a chill bite that could be borrowed from the frosty afternoon distortion that follows. In either case, the air is just too clear and empty for a proper fog to settle. Black Narcissus struggle with this dichotomy that pervades most post- and ambient music: the divide between heavy and light, between busy and empty, between too much and too little. The dividing line can be extremely fine—preferences for one side or the other are a matter of personal taste, but a piece of music falling just barely too far in either direction can be enough to ruin the experience for any given listener. Personally, as one of the more outspoken post-rock and -metal fans at The Progressive Subway, even during quiet, reverb-y moments, I want depth that I can explore. I prefer a pile of harmonies and complex rhythms to appreciate, not just some faded-out rhythm guitar (or in this case bass) playing simple melodies over a soft drum part as if applying an ambient style to an unconventional combination of rock instruments is automatically cool. There Lingers One shows a clear conflict between extremes of style, and most of the time I’m left wishing for any other band with a better sense of balance.
Black Narcissus get top marks for aesthetic, and their occasional moments of brilliant beauty can briefly carry the listener’s interest, but those moments remain too rare. Their soundscapes carry a gorgeous emptiness undercut by their tendency to blend in distracting distortion where greater impact could be achieved by leaving those graceful expanses unblemished. It’s not impossible to craft an album that straddles the line between light and heavy as There Lingers One Who’s Long Forgotten attempts to, but in this case the imperfect balance undermines both aspects rather than each of them supporting the other. Strong artistic sensibilities aren’t always enough to produce a compelling end product, and for all of Black Narcissus’s artistry, their vision manifests primarily in a fragmented, unbalanced mosaic. Its extremes fall a little too far on either end of the color spectrum, while the central image is left with jagged edges, making it difficult to pick out, like lingering, fragmented memories of one long forgotten.
Recommended tracks: These Hands That Build, Something Strange and Eternal, In Throes of Increasing Wonder, A Story and a Friend
You may also like: Downriver Dead Men Go, Midas Fall, The Depth Beneath Us, Helen Money
Final verdict: 6/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram
Label: Dunk! Records (Europe) – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website
A Thousand Arms Music (US) – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website
Black Narcissus is:
– Jesse Massant (bass)
– Thomas Wuyts (drums)
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