Olhava - Olhava

Olhava paints with a pallet of greys and blues, producing gorgeous songs that channel both wandering woods in winter and surveying post-industrial decay. The opening minutes of reverberating, watery guitars ease the listener into a complicit state where Olhava can work it's magic, and the astute ear will also hear in those strums the clarion echo of Alcest's 2010 masterpiece Écailles de Lune. But the Neige comparison largely ends there, as Olhava carves it's own path through thick walls of lush guitars, a mournful lead (accordion?) searing through the inundating mix like a faded guiding light. When "Loyalty" puts the pedal down, it channels depressive black metal to an extent, but the wistful yet resolute song sees more light adjacent to the darkness than those that focus solely on disappointment. "Loyalty" comprises one half of Olhava's self-titled debut and seamlessly runs into "Hope," a monumental track awash in glorious wonder that is just as worthy of your time as it's predecessor