“Tension. It’s a difficult thing to create. Take one of the most tension-filled scenes in movie history: the chest-burster sequence in Alien. Know why it works so well? Sure, the effects, acting and directing are all superb, but it’s the pacing. Specifically, the dining hall scene that precedes it. To create real tension, you need two things: periods of calm to allow the audience to breathe, and a sense of hope; that maybe, just maybe, things will be all right. Once the crew of the Nostromo pull the face-hugger from William Hurt’s face, you sense he’s done-for. But the fact that he looks healthy and is pictured having a meal with his pals allows you to breathe and lower your guard. You begin to experience a glimmer of hope that maybe he’ll be fine. So when the alien bursts through his chest a short while later, it is absolutely horrifying. But the dining scene is what makes it. Valborg is a German death-doom band that also deals in tension.” The birth and death of tension.
Prophecy Records
Germ – Escape Review
“So far this year, I’ve been tasked with reviewing—or simply listening to—a handful of shoegazing, post-black promos from a variety of little-known bands. Some of them are worth their weight in gold, while others are worth their weight in horseshit. For many, this genre petered out in the last decade or so when many o’ band jumped on the WitTR bandwagon, over-weighing the vehicle and driving its wheels axle-deep in the mud.” That navel isn’t going to contemplate itself, you know.