Band:	Summer Haze '99
Album:	Inevitable
Style:	Dream pop, Shoegaze, Atmospheric black metal, Post black metal
Release date:	April 2023

01. Someday
02. Idle Hands
03. Nostalgia
04. Inevitable
05. Destino
06. Voy Con Libertad

Erech Leleth's projects have been popping up like rain lately, all in various branches of black metal. It was only a matter of time until the bright rays of shoegaze touched at least one of them.

If you've been paying attention to our Clandestine Cuts series you might have encountered Erech's name and his many projects, since a lot of them haven't gotten to the full-length stage yet. Ancient Mastery and Golden Blood may have taken that step, but Bergfried, Carathis, Grandeur, and Narzissus have yet to take it. Sometimes their projects just start off with full-lengths. As was the case with Ancient Mastery. As is the case with Summer Haze '99. I guess sometimes the blueprint of an idea is so well-rounded that you don't even need any baby steps for it. So with an array of melodic, atmospheric, raw and whatever-other-descriptors-you-can-add-to-it black metal, Summer Haze '99 launches into blackgaze.

There's a bit more than blackgaze going on here, since there's a significant part of this album that isn't really even metal, let alone black metal; but as far as the black metal side is concerned, it's still pretty raw even with the more brighter tones it approaches. It's full of melody and has a clear atmospheric focus, and there's some branches into post-black metal and atmospheric black metal that feel completely separate from blackgaze. But at its most melodic it reminds me a lot of something like Sadness or Ghost Bath, and the playful synths especially evoke Mesarthim. Erech has already proven himself a more than competent musician, so if the project stopped at this black metal side, it would be a really great release too. But it doesn't.

There's a lot of this album that goes into something more akin to an indie rock, singer/songwriter, dream pop, trip/hop, post-rock, art pop direction. And yes, I have to list all those subgenres to be accurate. And most of this side of the band's sound is accorporated by Anouk Madrid's vocals, whose vocal timbre actually frustrating me to no end because of how it so strongly reminds me of someone else's and I've been spending the past couple of days frantically trying to figure out whose that is. Regina Spektor? Tori Amos? Lana Del Rey? Beth Gibbons? Sian Evans? Fiona Apple? Shana Halligan? Almost, but I kept having the feeling that a name will pop up that will make me go "THAT'S IT! That's who Anouk Madrid reminds me of!" And, to be honest, she kinda steals the show.

A lot of what faults this album is that there's a bit of a disjoint between the two sides. Each really great on their own, but other than the absolutely balls-to-the-walls fantastic closer it doesn't really feel like the two sides mix together that much or that well. The non-metal side and Anouk's vocals feel very clean and polished and that contrasts with the rawness of the black metal, something that's also apparent in the literal mixing of "Voy Con Libertad". Now, I'm making it seem worse than it actually is. The black metal side is already so unconventional due to its bright gaze-y leanings, the pianos are well used all throughout, and it does go into wild territories beyond just black metal and dream pop, like it suddenly finding a reggaeish rhythm or a steel guitar country solo on a post-rock soundscape. Yeah. Inevitable is ambitious and it is a lot.

This is a huge bite that might not get chewed properly, but even if the execution can't quite ace the concept, it's still so unbelievably well executed. The black metal side is a banger. The singer/songwriter side is a banger. The closer is a banger. All of its downsides end up being just afterthoughts that feed into thoughts of a more refined and better integrated follow-up. Rarely am I so invested in the potential of a project. I need Summer Haze '99 to live up to it.