review by: Mladen Škot

Striborg sometimes does wrong, but not here. The two parts of the Black Desolate Winter / Depressive Hibernation release were recorded in May and February 2005, and for all the difference in approach, they complement each other perfectly. It's almost as one wouldn't be complete without the other. And, alas, for anyone obsessed with collecting everything that this Tasmanian forest dweller ever recorded, this CD is a must have. Sin Nanna knows no mercy. 

Black Desolate Winter is closer to what you'd call "classic" Striborg. Apart from a cloudy, threatening intro and outro, it is just one, title track. To anyone but the initiate's dismay it is half an hour long - and it's nearly majestic. As the rules of misanthropic black metal command, the playing is totally careless and the sound is abysmal - most of the time it's hard to make out what the guitar is doing, the bass is sloppy and shamelessly loud, and the murky growls sound like they were just unearthed from a forest grave, and now, slowly waking up, wonder what innocent soul they should possess.

Concerning the drums, two things spring to mind. First, how did Sin Nanna manage to make an obviously electronic drum kit sound this dirty? And then, damn him, almost all the time there's constant, high speed double bass kicking - any normal drummer would have collapsed and died half way through. The song itself is a gem - there is one riff to remember, and the rest of the time it's mere wondering, on Striborg's as well as on the listener's side. It might look peaceful and serene from afar, but the winter is cold, deadly and unpredictable.

Depressive Hibernation is another side to the story. You wouldn't believe the sound - let's just say that the amplifier feedback Sin Nanna sometimes lets reverberate sounds more pleasant than the actual guitar sound. The riffs are extremely simple, the drums even more. If you have necromasochistic tendencies, Depressive Hibernation is pure, hallucinating, mesmerizing bliss. And this time, the vocals - as with the general sound itself, Sin Nanna didn't fail here either. These are the most insane, hysterical, demonic and inhuman screams anyone has ever done, including the Striborg mainman himself.

And then, a problem occurs. As always, Striborg makes music for the outcasts, those who - at least sometimes - want to shut out the outside world and just wish a quick death and disintegration to anything man-made, materialistic, pretentious and self-righteous. Nature doesn't need Man or any of his products. It has existed before, and it will exist after. But, once you hear those screams, in your glorious misanthropic solitude, feeling as one with Nature, you'll wish you had some friends around, just to play Depressive Hibernation to them and see the looks on their miserable faces. (8.5/10)