Perhaps it’s just me, but my experience listening to Slovenian Black Metal effort, CVINGER, seemed to have raised by blood pressure a few notches. Sure, Black Metal is often noted for having that trademark speed, a feeling like you can’t quite keep up. The percussion, like a beating squirrel heart, clumsily tries to keep the pace with some invisible force, one that somehow keeps the song moving ever rapidly forward. It’s as if some demonic conductor is cracking a whip while the musicians come apart at the seams to meet the demand. CVINGER holds nothing back with regards to this type of speed; perhaps this is why it has me feeling so anxious, but that would only be part of it. While tension builds in the music, there is little release typically found in various breaks and tempo changes. After the accoustic guitar opening in ‘Chapter 1: Into The Depts Of Arcane Sanctuary’, the band launches into ‘Blaspherion’, a grating tune where the vocals strain through spiraling guitars and cymbal-heavy percussion. The vocals stand out heavily on the mix and I wouldn’t say they are in typical Black Metal fashion per say; they carry more depth with them and do not seem to fluctuate in pitch that often. ‘Among The Crucified’ is a an odd and unsettling track partially due to the choral chants that open and interject the music almost without warning. The chants are stoic, as most chanting is I suppose, and it creates an eerie feeling, one that is uncertain and sinister. ‘Salvation In The Darkest Wrath’ rarely pauses, even during a brief break somewhere in the middle, the intensity is kept up by the vocals that sound equally as tortured as the rest of it.The same can be said of ‘In Thy Kingdom’s Shadow’. You can come up for air near the end of the song to hear some discernible riffs before everything ends abruptly and you’re likely to still be catching your breath at that point.It’s rare when listening to music becomes a feat, I can only imagine what it’s like to actually play. I should also note that it isn’t only the speed that makes this album so unremitting; the vocals don’t tend to meld into the mix the way you would expect. They stand out causing that sense of desperation to come vividly forward amping up the mood in its totality. It hovers in a strange purgatory somewhere between that classic Black Metal wall of sound and a unilateral operatic affair. I should also note that there are some acoustic guitar tracks / interludes on this album. I suppose that kills my whole anxiety theme I’ve got going, but I still didn’t find so much release in them. Perhaps that’s the point. "Monastery Of Fallen" is a relentless album. An interesting look at Black Metal that revels in its extreme uncertainty and discomfort as opposed to the typical bleakness. www.cvinger.com, www.facebook.com/cvinger666