TIme to try this Evoken album.
Monday morning Funeral Doom.
#evoken
Tempestuous Fall – The Descent of Mortals Past Review
By ClarkKent
In 2012, Australia’s Dis Pater released the debut record for his third active—at the time—one-man project: The Stars Would Not Awaken You by Tempestuous Fall, a work of epic funeral doom. The following year, Pater released what might be the strangest split I’ve heard of: a three-way between his own active projects. It ended up being a “[three] men enter, one man leaves” kind of deal, with Midnight Odyssey being the lone survivor.1 In that time, he has contributed to several other bands, from a Greek black metal group, Kawir, to a Slovakian black metal group, Aeon Winds, as well as a whopping nine LPs for Midnight Odyssey. Yet something about the funeral doom of Tempestuous Fall must have called Pater back. Backed by classical symphonic elements, it turns out he had rather ambitious goals for sophomore album, The Descent of Mortals Past.
The Descent of Mortals Past is a concept album focused on six mythological figures and their unfortunate adventures to the underworld. With themes based in the classics, and even some lyrics in Latin, it should be no surprise that Tempestuous Fall takes a classical approach to the music. “Theseus – Encased in the Stones of Hades” opens with some gorgeous, serene strings before adding on the usual funeral doom trappings of a heavy guitar and glacial pacing. You’ll also hear the melancholic tinkling of piano keys on songs like “Heracles – Dark is the Home of the Underworld,” showing off Pater’s versatility and ingenuity. It’s remarkable the way he melds these classical elements with doom guitars and growls to create lush, hooky funeral doom. “Psyche – Temptation of the Divine” goes all out, bringing in church organs, choral chants and hums, and operatic vocals from guest singer Alice Corvinus (Swords of Dis). This beautiful tune provides such an enticing melody you might follow it to the gates of Hades.
Of course, on the classics you don’t hear singers using demonic growls, but Tempestuous Fall might make them rethink that choice. Pater takes a My Dying Bride approach—alternating between low growls and cleans. He may not be as powerful as Aaron Stainthorpe, but he’s still effective. His growls contrast with the classical melodies and deliver the lyrics poetically, while his cleans provide memorable choruses that make you want to sing along. When the heavy guitars first join the strings on “Theseus…,” it’s a shock to the system like taking the polar plunge in nothing but your underpants. But they add a darkness and melancholy that’s fitting for doomed trips to the underworld. The production is a bit of a let-down, however, as the guitars take on a buzzy quality rather than the muscle of Evoken. Yet there is a charm to this raw, lo-fi quality that takes me back to the earlier Opeth records like Morningrise.
The back half of The Descent of Mortals Past has some unfortunate inconsistencies that keep it from matching the fantastic first half. None of these songs are bad, just different. The first is “Ulysses – Requiem of the Sea,” a doom cover of Mozart’s “Lacrimosa.” It’s a very cool track, but it also feels unoriginal, especially since it is among the most played classical tunes in modern pop culture—almost to the level of parody. Similarly, “Orpheus – In Dark Deathly Grey” is also quite good, but its focus on acoustics makes it sound more at home on a Dolven record than a symphonic funeral doom set. The finale, “Aeneas – Guide Me Home,” is a return to form that fits in much better with the front half. Like these earlier songs, it has strings, doom, and some melodic leads and cleans that end the LP on an uplifting note. Yet, being the longest tune at eleven minutes, it’s the only one that feels like it drags on due to too much repetition. Individually, the songs on the back half are solid and probably keep the record from sounding stale, yet they also break a spell the first half weaves.
While it doesn’t quite reach the level of last week’s Oromet, Tempestuous Fall has written another worthy platter of funeral doom for 2025. With how The Descent of Mortals Past sounds, it is understandable why Pater wanted to return to this funeral doom project after a thirteen-year hiatus. He has an ear for epic yarns, and his injection of doom adds gravity to the classics. I just hope that he doesn’t wait another thirteen years to release the next one.
Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: I, Voidhanger Records
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: November 14th, 2025
#2025 #35 #aeonWinds #australianMetal #dolven #evoken #funeralDoom #iVoidhangerRecords #kawir #midnightOdyssey #mozart #myDyingBride #nov25 #opeth #oromet #review #reviews #swordsOfDis #symphonicMetal #tempestuousFall #theDescentOfMortalsPast
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on #KEXP's #SeekAndDestroy
Evoken:
🎵 Matins
#Evoken
▶️ 🪄 Automagic 🔊 show 📻 playlist on Spotify
▶️ Song/Cover on #Bandcamp:
Matins, by EVOKEN
Thaumaturgy – Pestilential Hymns Review
By Spicie Forrest
Changing your sound must be equal parts thrilling and intimidating. On the one hand, it’s an opportunity to explore and flex your creative muscles, to see what else you can do. On the other hand, it may alienate your listeners, but more simply, it may just be unsuccessful. This is the crossroads at which we find Kansas-based Thaumaturgy. While their debut, Tenebrous Oblations, was a cavernous voyage through Mortiferum’s lightless catacombs, sophomore effort Pestilential Hymns, is a notable departure from that sound. Founder KT has brought on the equally mysterious TG and DS to realize this new sound.1 Is this evolution a confident step forward or an ill-conceived stumble?
Thaumaturgy’s sophomore effort is indeed a big change from their debut, but it’s got the same bones. The reverberous cobwebs that swaddled Tenebrous Oblations may be gone, but the murky, serpentine structures remain, often taking on a blackened char in the clearer production. “The Oncologist’s Hymn” and “Awaken Ares” showcase this well, employing textures that evoke SVRM or Wolves in the Throne Room, although more sinuous than Cascadian. Pestilential Hymns further departs from its predecessor with new vocalist, TG. KT still provides deep, cavernous roars as a backing vocalist, but TG looks to Death and Pestilence for inspiration, employing more howl than scream or growl. This would be concerning were it not for the added classic death/thrash riffcraft of those forebearers that complements TG’s performance. The last major change in Thaumaturgy’s sound is the inclusion of synths, most often used to augment or reinforce the atmosphere fostered by their newly blackened edge (“Plague Ritual,” “Neuroticism Triumphant”).
The deployment of these new elements on Pestilential Hymns is a bit of a mixed bag. Riffs and leads seared black bring a compelling gothic tone to the album that pairs well with that classic death metal sound (“Forced March”). Thaumaturgy’s two main styles—classic death and cavernous death—largely alternate as TG and KT pass the mic, creating a shifting landscape that keeps me invested through Pestilential Hymns’ 46-minute runtime. This separated approach does, however, encourage comparison between such regimented styles and passages, and I tend to gravitate toward and appreciate one over the other. An approach more melting pot and less mosaic may have alleviated this pain point. In a rare attempt at a more cohesive whole, “Entropic Hegemony” features a great deal of interplay between vocalists, but the Beastie Boys call-and-response style employed can be distracting.
Each element of Thaumaturgy’s new sound holds its own in isolation, but solid combination or incorporation is an area where the band could improve. Synths sprinkled throughout Pestilential Hymns do succeed in establishing atmosphere and evoking intended emotions, but only when embedded within tracks rather than serving as outros to them. Throughout the album, there’s a combined four minutes of synthy outros that don’t do much more than delay the oncoming track or blunt a strong finish (“The Oncologist’s Hymn,” “Awaken Ares,” “Forced March”). Add a handful of instrumental passages that linger overlong (“The Shadow Approaches,” “Plague Ritual”), and bloat and pacing become real issues. This is exacerbated by interlude “An Ignominious End.” I like the atmosphere it builds—I immediately thought of Evoken’s exhausted shuffles—but at 2:30 and as the penultimate track, it kills any momentum leading into the album’s end. Smaller doses of this energy could have been incorporated into the meat of proper tracks to better effect.
Pestilential Hymns feels like a step back from Thaumaturgy’s debut, but one made out of exploration and experimentation. It’s a dip in cohesion, not a dip in quality. Everything here succeeds individually, and the majority does so holistically as well. But there are a few fundamentals—pacing, synthesis, bloat—that this broadened focus neglects. That said, Pestilential Hymns is still a fun listen and shows much promise toward a more unified future vision. My complaints seem easily attributable to growing pains and self-discovery, which, of all possible faults, are among the more commendable ones. And if there’s a choice between taking risks and retreading solid ground, I’ll support evolution every time.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Memento Mori
Websites: Bandcamp | Instagram
Releases Worldwide: October 20th, 2025
#2025 #30 #AmericanMetal #BeastieBoys #Death #DeathMetal #Evoken #MementoMori #Mortiferum #Oct25 #Pestilence #PestilentialHymns #Review #Reviews #Svrm #Thaumaturgy #WolvesInTheThroneRoom
By Tyme
Amidst the tenebrous shadows of Boise, Idaho’s underground metal scene, death-doom dronesters Old Year first formed as a duo in 2017 and were content from the outset to operate in secret, as a rumor, a cathartic side-project contained behind closed doors. Until 2021, that is, when Old Year grew from a duo to a trio comprised of founding guitarist/vocalist Robert Taylor Roark, drummer Jered Veeneman, and newcomer bassist Skyler Rezendes, and saw fit to emerge from their post-pandemic dungeons of self-isolated slumber to unleash dark arts on stages across the Boise underground. UK record label Apocalyptic Witchcraft took note of Old Year’s eleven-minute eponymous single in 2023, then signed the three-piece to a deal, resulting in the band’s forthcoming debut full-length, No Dissent. Does Old Year have what it takes to make a ripple in the ichorous pool of their chosen genre, or will they drown in the quick sands of missed opportunity?
Old Year’s droning form of doom metal is big, and No Dissent leaves little room to argue the point. Rezendes’ massive, tectonic bass lines shift under Roark’s squealy guitar feedback, distortedly sustained chords, and morosely haunting leads, conjuring an atmosphere that fans of Khanate, Evoken or Hell might appreciate (“Rotting Illusion”). Veeneman’s drums, monstrous and restrained, serve as the twisted backbone that keeps the rest of the band from getting too far ahead of themselves, expertly managing the funereal tempos, while Roark’s guttural roars, a mix of Incantation’s John McEntee and Bolt Thrower’s Karl Willetts, resound cavernously over the whole cacophonous affair, just this side of discernible. Tried and true death doom tropes are adhered to, boundaries left unstretched as Old Year seem less intent to innovate than devastate.
What drew me to Old Year is the result of something I refer to as the Jute Gyte effect, and not because Old Year share much of anything in common with Adam Kalmbach’s atonal dissonant metal project either. But because, while sumping the promo pit for something to snag, I was listening to a few minutes of No Dissent’s advance track, “Mechanical Birth,” and what I heard, though initially dismissed, refused to leave my mind, demanding I return to it. Which is precisely how I ended up falling for Jute Gyte’s Perdurance, and why I ended up pulling Old Year out of the murky waters. It just so happens that “Mechanical Birth,” with its eleven-plus minutes of relentless, pulsing death doom decimation, encapsulates every weapon at Old Year’s disposal and executes it all at a high level, making it an album highlight.
With a compact run-time of thirty-six minutes, No Dissent is an appetizer of the drone doom genre. While this personally nonpluses me, there may be purists, especially those of the funeral variety, who rabble over No Dissent’s length, shouting, ‘Why it’s barely an EP!’ And though I appreciate the bite-sized nature of Old Year’s debut, the album itself, wrapped in production that, though loud, complements what No Dissent is trying to do, consists of four separate tracks that, when taken as a whole, flow more like one continuous thirty-six-minute song, each one beginning and ending in very similar waves of screechy feedback. This undulation, combined with the simplistic construction of each song’s core, does wrap No Dissent in a drone that belies the album’s intent. There is nothing here that moves the genre forward in any way, at least not in ways that bands like Hellish Form are pushing things, perhaps rendering No Dissent too short, sweet, and simple for some.
For the interested yet uninitiated, Old Year’s No Dissent wouldn’t be a bad place from which to launch your journey into the death doom drone world. Its short run time and solid, albeit overly simple, representation of the genre could serve as training wheels, guiding you to bigger and more complex adventures. No Dissent didn’t blow my socks off, but I can see myself returning to it because it’s big, powerful, and doesn’t demand hours of my time. For now, I recommend you try plumbing its depths as well, and know that I will be scanning the horizon to see what Old Year does next.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Apocalyptic Witchcraft
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: October 24th, 2025
#2025 #30 #AmericanMetal #ApocalypticWitchcraft #DeathMetal #DoomMetal #Drone #Evoken #Hell #Khanate #NoDissent #Oct25 #OldYear #Review
EVOKEN (Estats Units) presenta nou àlbum: "Mendacium" #Evoken #FuneralDoom #DeathMetal #Octubre2025 #EstatsUnits #NouÀlbum #Metall #Metal #MúsicaMetal #MetalMusic
By Steel Druhm
New Jersey’s Evoken is one the big names in the very niche genre of funeral doom. Since 1994 they’ve been churning out lengthy, unhurried odes to despair and tragedy, taking heavy inspiration from the Peaceville Three era while forging a path of their own. Albums like Quietus and Antithesis of Light are regarded as funeral doom triumphs, and you can depend on Evoken to deliver carefully crafted epics full of emotionally harrowing moods. It’s been a long time since 2018s Hypnagogia dropped, and 2025 finally sees these Garden State downers resurface for 7th full-length, Mendacium. And when I saw full-length, I mean FULL, as this beast runs over an hour with songs typically in the 9-10 minute framework. Funeral doom can be a tough sell to many, even when executed adroitly. Will there be an appetite for an hour-plus of what Evoken have prepared for the ears?
Nearly 10-minute opener “Matins” isn’t what I would call a soft intro to the Evoken experience. It’s eerie, ominous funeral noise with heavy, drawn-out doom riffs, cavernous death croaks, and nerve-jangled synths, but as the monster shambles forward, more melodic touches emerge from the miasma. Sad, forlorn piano keys twinkle in that My Dying Bride way, and a vaguely Gothic mist swirls below the heavier assault. Sudden upheavals of blast beats and trem riffs jumpstart the energy, and tempos are toyed with just enough to keep things from becoming a faceless mush of doom plod. The package is what Evoken have done before, and it isn’t showing new textures so much as moving established genre pieces around on the board. The forlorn guitar lines and solos ache with emotion, and a feeling of suffocating hopelessness is maintained throughout. Is it a chore to get through? That will depend on how well you stomach funeral doom, but even for a fan like me, it does feel a bit long by the end. “Lauds” is another 10-minute death march, but a bit more “urgent” in its pacing, with more emphasis on force and less on atmosphere and nuance. The dramatic spoken word bits can be a take-it-or-leave-it element, but the riffs are meaty and heavy, and there’s a sense of danger here instead of just grief. It’s got genuinely gripping moments, and the vaguely liturgical feel of the synths and ghostly choirs is a nifty touch, but Evoken drag segments out past the point of usefulness with resultingly diminishing returns.
For my tastes, “None” is the album highlight. Though typically slow to get locked into gear, once there, you’re greeted with gripping death and black vocals and a rising intensity that feels like it’s on the highway to Hell. There’s real menace here, though restraint and leaden pacing are still the watchwords. The extra weight from the riffs helps keep attention, though Evoken still tests your patience with stretched-out segments of minimal action. Closer “Compline” dives deeper into classic doom and the salad days of My Dying Bride and Anathema with mostly positive results. I especially like the banged upon piano keys, which hint at something disturbing. The big obstacle across Mendacium is the way Evoken build their long-form compositions. They can often feel flat and undynamic, even by funeral doom standards. The tracks with the most routine tempo shifts work best, but even they feel 2-3 minutes too long. This isn’t a new issue for the band, but it seems to have become more pronounced starting on Hypnagogia. There are long segments that could appear on a new age meditation album, where you can sit and zone out to the astral plane. That’s fine, but I don’t want lots of that in my funeral doom.
John Paradiso and Chris Molinari offer a fair amount of heavy doom riffs, and there are plenty of plaintive harmonies that speak of melancholy and despair. They aren’t the most dynamic riff authors out there, but they know how to set a mood and build atmosphere. Paradiso’s vocals are effective, his death roars booming and menacing and his evil blackened cackles sounding suitably demonic. I’m not a fan of the spoken word bits, but that’s a genre-wide issue and a personal preference. Vince Verkay does a lot on the kit when let off his leash by the funerary slogging. He’s one of the bright spots here, and I find my attention drawn to his playing frequently.
Evoken are pros at this style of doom, and Mendacium is solid, competent funeral doom with some writing snags that take it down a few notches in effectiveness. Too many moments evoke spa time, sitting with cucumber slices on my eyes rather than sobbing inconsolably at a loved one’s grave. I need less spa, more funeral. This may be one of the most restrained things to ever come out of New Jersey, and that’s not a selling point for Yours Steely. Still, if the mood is right, this could lull you into an early grave. A muted endorsement.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Profound Lore
Websites: evokenofficial.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/evokenhell | instagram.com/evoken_doom_official
Releases Worldwide: October 17th, 2025
#2025 #30 #AmericanMetal #Anathema #DeathMetal #DoomMetal #Evoken #FuneralDoom #Mendacium #MyDyingBride #Oct25 #ProfoundLore #Review #Reviews
🇬🇧 It's still #Saturdoom for a couple of hours. I could of course toot about the new album by #ParadiseLost but I'll put that in a #thingstolistento post.
I just read that Evoken has released a new song so I'll give a link to that.
#TheMetalDogArticleList
#MetalInjection
EVOKEN Unveil First-Ever Music Video With Crushing New Single 'None'
https://metalinjection.net/video/evoken-unveil-first-ever-music-video-with-crushing-new-single-none
#EVOKEN #UnveilFirst #EverMusicVideoWithCrushingNewSingle #single #video #musicvideo #MetalInjection #metal #music
#evoken #doommetal #deathdoom #newalbum #bandcamp #music #nowlistening
https://evokenofficial.bandcamp.com/album/mendacium
Taken from the album Mendacium out Oct 17, 2025.
#TheMetalDogArticleList
#MetalInjection
EVOKEN Returns With Absolutely Miserable New Single 'Matins'
https://metalinjection.net/new-music/evoken-returns-with-absolutely-miserable-new-single-matins
#EVOKEN #ReturnsWithAbsolutelyMiserableNewSingle #Matins #single #MetalInjection #metal #music
An Tóramh – Echoes of Eternal Night Review
By Steel Druhm
Coming off the titanic ass-whipping I received from atmo-doom upstarts Structure, I stumbled concussed and confuzzled right into a funeral doom bushwhacking by the unheralded Minneapolis-based two-man project, An Tóramh.1 Formed by members of Chalice of Suffering and Goatwitch, An Tóramh play brain-pulping funerary muzak draped in existential dread and gutwrenching despair, as all things should be. Echoes of Eternal Night borrows essential talismans and reliquaries from the graves of Loss, Evoken, and Ataraxie to create an emotionally deadening experience that slowly emulsifies your skeletal structure into Laffy Taffy™. This is weighty, unrelenting stuff, with massive, earth-moving riffs offset by tragically forlorn trilling and all of it vomited upon by gurgling death vocals from the sub-sub-basement of the monstorium. It’s a recipe for a deeply immersive death reverie or a total snooze-fest, depending on the relative skill of those involved. Which side of sleepytime gorilla nap bait will Echoes fall on? Let’s kick the casket tires.
After a mood-setting but overlong intro, the prime beef gets slapped down on the meat table hard with the monolithic title track. This is 7-plus-minutes of fucking HUGE funeral doom with all boxes checked and all lights blinking red like the Chernobyl control room on April 26, 1986. It’s massively heavy, menacing, and flows like molasses mixed with wet concrete. Hideous doom riffs entwine with sadboi harmonies as cymbals crash and John Suffering wretches his internal organs out. It’s harrowing and horrible, but oddly beautiful. “Desolation” runs over nine minutes, opening with an air of hope and positivity before settling into a melancholic doom plod past the graves of empires forlorn. The Candlemassive bittersweet guitar harmonies pair well with the subterranean death croaks, and just when things seem to be drifting back toward hopefulness, the rug gets pulled and you tumble back into eternal darkness.
“Shadows of Despair” is bleak and weepy, but slowly mixes in light, airy synths and strings that remind me of the Friday Night Lights soundtrack by Explosions in the Sky. It creates a strange dichotomy of moods, but it works really well. “Sea of Sorrow” is classic sadboi, melancholic funeral doom, and it blends the sour with the sweet in just the right measures to drag you under the waves. However, some issues hold Echoes of Eternal Night back from a greater triumph. As great as the title track is, no other song captures that same magical misery. “Embrace the Shadows” is quite good, and I love the heavy sighing of the riffs and how the understated symphonic elements add a touch of grandeur and scope to the music, but it doesn’t quite ascend to the same level of masterful doom. Closer “Withering in Sorrow” is an effective piece, but the production here is way worse than on the rest of the album, with the vocals almost totally buried in a much more raw sound, and it reeks of basement demo recording hijinks. Still, the last few minutes bring a deadly Celtic Frost / Triptykon element to the riffs that turns the brain into bug jelly. At just under 50 minutes, Echoes is a very tolerable length, and though every track could be trimmed, this is funeral doom, and the dour duo make good use of the elongated run times.
Anthony Copertino Jr. (Goatwitch) handles everything except vocals and does a great job across the board. His guitar work sticks closely to the original Book ov Funeral Doom, with two-ton riffs coming down hard and weepy melodic trills resounding near and far. Importantly, he knows when to drone and when to shift to a new riff, which aids the ebb and flow of the lengthy compositions. His keyboard/synth work functions as a rounding agent to smooth down the extreme edges, and he never allows them to interfere with the guitars or vocals. Drum-wise, he delivers a satisfyingly heavy, resonant thudding with dramatic cymbal work throughout.2 Meanwhile, John Suffering offers an everflowing stream of mega-deep, monstrous death roars that call to mind the immortal diSEMBOWELMENT. He doesn’t change things up much, but he’s effectively inhuman and anchors the miserable sound palette.
Echoes of Eternal Night is a very successful debut with moments of top-tier funeral doom, and no track turns into a grave collapse. The twosome behind An Tóramh know how to make this oh-so-niche genre compelling and unexpectedly listenable. If you need more unhappiness in your life, this is an album you can wallow in like a doom hog in the tears of the crestfallen. Wrestle that sadpig, poser!
Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Black Lion
Websites: antoramhblacklion.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/antoramh
Releases Worldwide: May 9th, 2025
#2025 #35 #AmericanMetal #AnTóramh #Ataraxia #BlackLionRecords #CelticFrost #ChaliceOfSuffering #diSEMBOWELMENT #DoomMetal #EchoesOfEternalNight #Evoken #FuneralDoomMetal #Loss #May25 #Review #Reviews #Triptykon
🖤 ROUND I - Phase 1 - match 8/50
Which one is the best doom metal album?
🤘 Evoken, Atra Mors, (2012)
or
🤘 Om, God is Good, (2009)
➡️See pinned post on profile for the tournament rules
:mastodon: Please 𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗦𝗧
🎧 YOU ARE STRONGLY ENCOURAGED TO GIVES EACH ALBUM A FRESH LISTEN BEFORE VOTING
#KingusMusicTournaments #MusicTournament #Doom #DoomMetal #KMTPoll #Music #Evoken #Ramesses
By Dear Hollow
Once again, as reflected in the French act’s fifth full-length, Ataraxie channels an existential crisis. Le Déclin is not just a soundtrack of its inspiration source (Ahab, Tyranny) or a dark meditation on devastation (Evoken, Bell Witch), it’s something more profound. Throughout its miasmic movements and stark artwork, I am called back to Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman’s opus magnum, the 1957 film The Seventh Seal, a knight’s struggle through the days of Black Plague allegorized as a chess game between himself and Death. Likewise, Le Déclin continues its predecessor’s bleak and tormented commentary on the “manipulation and obfuscation of the Masses, the cult of selfishness, dehumanization towards a parasiting [sic] virtual life, [and] global warming insolubility.” Through the lens of modern global anxiety and medieval self-flagellation, Ataraxie revels in the human torment beneath it all.
Ataraxie, while not always unique in its viscous approach to punishing death/doom, has always been far more guitar-forward, forgoing the atmospheric bells and whistles of genre stalwarts. The first full-length Slow Transcending Agony expertly balanced the weight and tempo of funeral doom with the riffs and punishment of death metal in a unique breed that maintained a unique simmering energy. However, it wasn’t until the very well-received L’Etre et la Nausée and Résignés that this fusion was successfully streamlined into a more palatable expression that balances tradition with punishment. Featuring three guitarists,1 more sophisticated arrangements, and penchant for melancholy and desperation alike, the minimalist emphasis remains as punishing as ever. Although Le Déclin somewhat lacks the memorability of Ataraxie’s magnum opera, four lengthy compositions complete with earthshaking thunder and melodies like the tolling of death knells nonetheless collide to create one of the best doom albums of the year. It is Ataraxie, after all.
While the overwhelm of traditional funeral doom acts like Thergothon or Esoteric is certainly intact, that weight is powerfully balanced out by the death metal guitar influence of diSEMBOWELMENT or Winter. Slow growths across mammoth sixteen to twenty-two-minute runtimes give way to glorious eruptions of crushing heaviness and haunting melodies, punctuated by patient lulls. While the lack of ambiance can be seen as a detriment in the barren no man’s land of funeral doom, Ataraxie does a fantastic job of weaponizing dynamics and more traditional death metal motifs, such as blazing tremolo and blast beats (“Vomisseurs De Vide,” “Glory of Ignominy”), chunky climactic riffs, and pulsing undercurrents of energetic percussion (“Glory of Ignominy,” “The Collapse”). While adding to the muscularity of the already colossal album, bassist/vocalist Jonathan Théry’s charismatic and haunting shrieks, shouts, and roars add to the madness, keenly aligned with desperation and fury. Le Déclin is mixed nearly perfectly, Ataraxie’s weight and gloom felt through every movement, crushing down like the empty sky.
Most impressive about Ataraxie is its ability to balance sloth, melancholy, and aggression organically, without losing its conviction to starkness—and only with the bare bones of its triple-guitar attack. Because of this, the heavy-handed melo-drama of acts like Saturnus or Novembers Doom is absent in favor of desolation, reflected in elements like effective spoken word (“Vomisseurs de Vide”) and the dynamic motifs scattered throughout. The weaponized layered plucking or strumming may sound too hammy or heartfelt on paper, but when it sounds like tolling bells (“Le Déclin”) or progressions completely devoid of hope (“Vomisseurs de Vide,” “Glory of Ignominy”), the weight of every empty note feels just as devastating as the colossal funeral doom sprawls. Closer “The Collapse” streamlines the heft and barrenness seamlessly, its first act a steady crescendo that explodes into an outright death metal assault, its second act a blastbeat-infected climax into outright despair—Ataraxie’s nearly perfect dichotomy of beautiful and punishing.
The opening title track feels slightly less memorable than its successive three cuts, due to its more straightforward rhythm, but this criticism is trivial compared to the absolute sonic and existential devastation coursing through Ataraxie’s signature sound. Attention never sways across its hour-and-fifteen-minute length, with expertly composed lulls and crescendos guiding its movements. Cutting to the bone of funeral doom with the jagged blade of death metal, it dispenses with the frivolities and atmospherics for an album that is bleak and tormented to its very core – a chess game with Death in all its desperate victories and devastating losses. It’s the soundtrack of the crushed human spirit.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Ardua Music | Weird Truth Productions
Websites: ataraxie.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/ataraxiedoom
Releases Worldwide: October 25th, 2024
#2024 #40 #Ahab #ArduaMusic #Ataraxie #BellWitch #DeathMetal #DeathDoomMetal #diSEMBOWELMENT #DoomMetal #Esoteric #Evoken #FrenchMetal #FuneralDoomMetal #LeDéclin #Oct24 #Review #Reviews #Thergothon #Tyranny #WeirdTruthProductions #Winter
#DoomTober is not complete without some #Evoken . Still considering Quietus one of their best..... #DoomMetal
I'm trying to increase my score, so for the #ObscureOnes in @HailsandAles' #BlackMetalMonday:
#Nortt: Af Dode
For #SymphonicMonday by @sariash:
#Funeral: My Own Grave
https://song.link/gfpncmwnm9k2x
It's #FuneralDoomMetal, but come on, if this is not symphonic enough, I don't know what is.
Tzompantli – Beating the Drums of Ancestral Force Review
By Dolphin Whisperer
Art is culture. Culture needs representation. These two things often align with metal in ways we don’t realize, whether it’s the new death metal band that wants to play old-school death metal to continue to push for the representation of simpler times in death metal, or the cinephile who longs to see their niche amongst the swarms of various niche interest metal bands out there. Everyone wants to be seen and accepted for who they are, and the majesty of this metal realm we inhabit is such that artists can do just that. In the case of Tzompantli and their sophomore release Beating the Drums of Ancestral Force, this collective of California-based musicians—a pool of eleven performers from bands of all extremities, including Xibalba, Teeth, Civerous—wishes to express their reverence for the brutal nature worship of the Aztec/Mexica people and history. But never fear, this new and furious outing is far from a dissertation.
True to its namesake, Beating the Drums of Ancestral Force comes loaded with indigenous percussion, shrill flute shrieks, and piles and piles of deathly riffs. With a ferrous scent and sanguine splatter, the guitar ensemble that powers Tzompantli churns buzzsaw riff to Peaceville droning harmony with ease. And as the serenity of those moments dissipates in the wake of sacrifice, beatdown approximating segues crush space like the crack of macuahuitl to its unfortunate foe. In many ways Beating whips about with greater intensity than this act’s debut outing a couple of years back—time has allowed nuance to settle.
As such, Beating at its most impressive and brutal assaults stirs battle-lust in a manner that only this sound-nook can. No proper volume exists for sections like the skull-splitting opening fifteen seconds of dramatic flute wail and warrior chant or the recalled alert that swells to a primal throb on “Tetzavitzli.” Testament to Tzompantli’s eclectic nature, this pattern of tension and release reminds me most of both the ritualistic crescendo aim of aggressive Neurosis works (think “Through Silver and Blood” or “Under the Surface“) and the long-form low-end abuse of Evoken. However, compared to both of those acts, the crew that composes Tzompantli skews death and hardcore, so many songs find a way back to the grounded realms of down-tuned tremolo runs and tempo-tugging shuffles.
Despite the impressive number of people involved in the creation of Beating, rarely does the album feel like the result of a tribe in unison. Now, you may be thinking that that shouldn’t matter, that the number of people on paper doesn’t always have to present in total sound construction. While that’s true, Tzompantli does indeed crash in waves as one, like the fireside call and response of “Tlaloc Icuic” that lights the path for a Conan-sized drop or the heavily layered percussion that propels “Tetzaviztli.” And in these explosive displays of collective power, Tzompantli makes its mark not only as unique and affecting death/doom band but as a realization of their mission statement. It’s a wonder to behold and a shame that the link amongst these peaks renders as merely good slow, chugging death metal.
In the atmospheric realm, Tzompantli’s trademark “Tzomp-Stomp” lands like a breath of scorching hot air. Yet that same force poses an issue in this tightly interwoven tapestry of oscillating moods that Beating the Drums of Ancestral Force swings. It’s tough to temper the twitch of might and the pulse of bravado that engorges throughout these tales of might, triumph, war, and loss. The comedown ambience can simply be too unsettling. But with many passages in the Nauhatl language helping engross the audience in ancient glory, Tzompantli, at least, succeeds in sharing their reverence for their chosen and deeply personal subject matter. And with as many bodies that compromise this unique and promising band, it’s anyone’s guess as to how impacting their continued statements will be.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: 20 Buck Spin | Bandcamp
Website: facebook.com/tzompantlidoom
Releases Worldwide: May 17th, 2024
#20BuckSpin #2024 #30 #AmericanMetal #AtmosphericDeathMetal #BeatingTheDrumsOfAncestralForce #Civerous #Conan #DeathMetal #deathDoomMetal #DoomMetal #Evoken #May24 #Neurosis #Review #Reviews #Teeth #Tzompantli #Xibalba
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