Labored Breath

***Thirty six minutes of soul-ruining black metal, "Dyspnea" is the towering debut offering from Oakland CA one-man black metal entity Labored Breath, a project conceived as unapologetic devotion to the moment of reckoning of one's ultimate finality, and as a conceptual aural evisceration of mankind's minuscule and pathetic existence within the blink of an eye of an infinite, eternal void. The literal medical definition of gasping for air as the final breath appears at the horizon, and of finite stubborn existence attempting to subvert the infinity and inevitability of death, "Dyspnea" is a harrowing trip deep inside humanity's biggest fears and its all-encompassing insignificance. It is the moment of realization and the crippling instance within ones existence in which the immensity and omnipotence of death pierces the final and most armored under layers of consciousness and denial and stares at the human being straight in the eye to make it kneel in the shadow of total unavoidability. Bridging the spellbinding atmospherics and evocative power of Icelandic black metal (Sinmara, Carpe Noctem, Misþyrming, Svartidauði) with the crushing violence and brute antagonism of French black metal (Aosoth, Drastus, Antaeus), Labored Breath has created an intimidating and majestic black metal crucible that shape-shifts and morphs in perpetual motion, stirring an immense sinister aural maelstrom of tenebrous surrealism and masterful sonic destruction as ultimate and supreme homage to the omnipotence and splendor of our endless destroyer.