Θ (Theta) – Total Division (Album – Zoharum)
Genre/Influences: Dark-Ambient
Format: Digital, CD.
Background/Info: Themistoklis Altintzoglou is a Greek living in Norway. He set up Θ (Theta) in 2013 and already released an impressive number of productions. “Total division” is his first work released by Zoharum and features nine songs.
Content: “Total Division” reveals a gloomy Ambient music style, which has been mixed Noise treatments and Industrial sound treatments. It’s an extremely obscure, dark work moving towards a true tormented atmosphere. The last track is a bonus cut featuring MB. We here get a kind of apotheosis with spoken-like vocals and chants. The chants are somewhat classical-like and create a sonic osmosis with icy sphere of the track.
+ + + : “Total Division” is an album with a real strong visual appeal. It moves in between haunting atmospheres and pure sonic terror, which is accentuated by some Noise-like treatments and heavy Industrial crashes. The work is well-crafted and has something sophisticated. There’s a perfect twist between all different ingredients and even more explicit electronic sequences are noticeable elements. I like the obscure approach and sphere emerging of this work, which features multiple great tracks.
– – – : I don’t see real minus points about this work. I’m just surprised the title track is one of the single cuts, which didn’t catch my attention.
Conclusion: “Total Division” is a great and artistic Dark-Ambient work with a wide spectrum of influences. It’s not the ‘classical’ Dark-Ambient production, but an album with a somewhat progressive approach.
Best songs: “Glacial Mass”, “Glacial Mass feat. MB”, “Coal Draw”, “Shallow Well”.
Rate: (8 ½).
Artist: https://thetasounds.org
Label: www.zoharum.com / www.facebook.com/zoharum
About Θ (Theta)
Θ (Theta) is the solo project of Greek musician Themistoklis Altintzoglou, who lives in Tromsø in northern Norway. According to the Zoharum notes he has released music since 2013, is one half of the duos metatag and isolation, has worked with Mitsumidai on Brazilian horror film soundtracks and has contributed soundscapes to albums by Tau Cross and War//Plague. The label notes that his roots lie in hardcore punk and that guitar sound is at the center of his inspirations. A Discogs search did not surface a profile for the project.
“Total Division” was released by the Polish label Zoharum on 29 March 2021 as a download and as a CD limited to 350 copies in a six-panel ecopack. Altintzoglou recorded it in Tromsø between 2019 and 2020, and Mads Martinsen mastered it. The Bandcamp player lists eight tracks, “Shallow Well”, “Cradle Stone”, “Soul Discount”, “Coal Draw”, “Glacial Mass”, “Crater Town”, “Sea Blasphemy” and “Total Division”; the bonus version of “Glacial Mass” mentioned in the review carries vocals by Magdaléna Budínová, credited as MB.
The second Zoharum album Vision Of One followed in 2022 and was reviewed on Side-Line in April 2022. “Total Division” is the project’s first release on the label and its first Side-Line review.
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