Beginning as a progressive metal band, they’ve continually pushed their sound and expanded into new sounds and textures, cementing themselves as one of the most interesting and sonically diverse bands in heavy music. Widely heralded as a career high, previous album Pitfalls was a deeply personal affair, chronicling multi-instrumentalist and singer Einar Solberg’s struggles with anxiety and depression. With seventh album Aphelion, they’ve continued along the introspective route and have opened up their sound even further.
If nothing else, this is an album of contrasts for many reasons. Initially conceived of as an EP, the band simply continued writing when they realised something more could be made of it. Not only this, but thanks to the global pandemic, they were forced to record it across three separate studios, in different ways and at different times. For all these differences, Aphelion stands as a cohesive body of work, despite also not being written as an album but a collection of songs that were assembled after the fact.
Of course, such jeering during that time period was just preposterous. Sunbather and it’s respective follow ups, 2015’s New Bermuda and 2018’s Ordinary Corrupt Human Love, where very much metal records of extreme metallic intensity inter-speckled with moments of esoteric melodicism.
However, it could be suggested that such naysayers where somewhat factual in their claims and Deafheaven where never a metal band to begin with. Not because of their experimental take on the blackgaze genre defying restrictive and banal genre limitations, but because the band where actually fearlessly articulating their concepts through the language of thrillingly contemporary extreme metal. Now it appears they have validated such claims. With their fifth full length Infinite Granite, Deafheaven have cut the pretence and removed the extremity from their work almost entirely by making a shoegazing post-rock record.
The unveiling of such a pivotal change of direction was, understandably, met with alarm and more-or-less agitation from listeners. Some expressed swift judgement and made cliched claims of ‘selling out’ whilst others harbouring contempt towards their take on the genre felt validated in their beliefs. However, as a complete body of work, Infinite Granite is undoubtedly a Deafheaven record in spirit and feels like the next logical step for the band. It would have been easy to continue down the blackgaze path and to regurgitate the same ideas and concepts exercised in the past, but it’s clear – now irrefutably clear – that Deafheaven aren’t a band to retread ground out of convenience.
Opener ‘Shellstar’ instantly establishes the overall tone, mood, the blanketing feel of the record and the integral changes Deafheaven have conducted on their ever evolving sound. Initially reserved and placid, the track’s floral guitar swirls bloom into buzzing swathes of shoegaze that invoke feelings of electrified warmth that’s strongly comparable to the Shelter era of Alcest. ‘In Blur’ and the colossal ‘Great Mass Of Color’ continue in this trend, with great tidal swells of shoegazing ambience and velvet-like textures shimmering with beauty and allure.
On one hand, it could be perceived as indication that the band in question are tapping into the experimental leylines that jettisoned the creation of the original album in question. On the other it could be a warning sign that a band are about to tread water and rehash creative ideas from years prior out of creative stagnation.
So with that in consideration, eyes where raised en-mass when Between The Buried And Me announced Colors II, the spiritual and titular sequel to the 2007 LP that solidified their stance as one of the most vital acts within the progressive metal echelon. It may be a bombastic claim in-itself, but Between The Buried And Me have often been recognised as one the arbiters of the genre. Their subtly nonconformist and innovative approach to dynamic progressive extremity has essentially immortalised them within the halls of the genre, and it was the release of Colors – a record of staunch musical integrity – that propelled them onto the pedestal they have remained on since. The original Colors, was as frontman Tommy Rodgers states, a “do-or-die statement”, a frantic and urgent attempt to forge their own identity within the metal miasma of the global scene. Of course, the record was a success, and Between The Buried And Me have gone onto explore paths anew since the release of the record almost 15 years ago. It makes one wonder why the band have gone to retread the once cautious steps from their turbulent youth.
Of course though, time moves as a circle and Between The Buried And Me have returned to a position much akin to the one they where in way back in 2007. With their 20th anniversary marathon tour plans eschewed due to the pandemic and with the band once again stuck on a planet spinning out of control on it’s axis, the band have spent the last year or so doing what they did back in the late noughties; contemplating the nature of humanity, the world and their place within it all. Colors II, much like it’s predecessor, is a statement of intent, of observation and of purpose. It’s a record that and tries to untangle the perpetual mess of the human condition and is a record that see’s Between The Buried And Me going fully all in on restating their identity in the modern day. Thematically, conceptually and in delivery, Colors II runs in the same lines as it’s predecessor. But musically, it’s been bolstered by the confidence and finesse that comes with two decades creating progressive metal at in it’s most bizarre and experimental form. Simply, Colors II is without a doubt the band’s most wild, weird and boldest record to date.
The ambitious and grandiose, brutal assault on the senses sound provided by Necronautical has been carved out over the last decade, earning the band significant respect from the UK underground. Technically brilliant yet still retaining a savage aggression, the band’s latest endeavour is easily their best to date. Slain In The Spirit is an iron fist under a velvet glove, with its hulking, sinister strength could knock you into next week and write a fully orchestrated funeral percussion for your funeral. This also ushers in a new era for the band, as they ditch the signature black metal corpse paint and bring in some more death metal elements to their music. Slain In The Spirit ushers in a new, exciting and epic era of the band.
Slain In The Spirit in the briefest possible descriptive terms is the lovechild of Emperor’s sizeable symphonic black metal sausage and the aggressive blackened death metal of Behemoth. That being said, there is also a lot more to the album that, with progressive passages on ‘Hypnagogia’ reminiscent of Opeth’s seminal album Blackwater Park, alongside a plethora of other influences, Necronautical have not only built on 2019s Apotheosis, they’ve taken it to the next level and beyond. From the opening track, ‘Ritual Recursion’, to the very last ‘Disciple’ you are met with epic symphonic passages and a cacophony of melodic chaos. The layers of texture and nuance range from sweeping and vast to the downright primal and sinister, both are pulled off with exquisite technical efficiency and brilliance. The album conjures up vivid imagery of dark, eerie places where magic in all its forms is allowed to run riot in its most esoteric, visceral and primal form.
It’s the first album for Century Media Records as well as the first album to be created in a fully self-contained way; the band wrote, recorded and mixed the entire thing themselves at their home studios, Owl Lodge Studios, in the woods of Washington state. That change can’t be understated; while Primordial Arcana is still clearly a Wolves In The Throne Room album, many little changes – including its self-containment – add up to create something remarkable indeed.
First of all, the inclusion of guitarist Kody Keyworth in the writing process, bringing him fully into the Wolves In The Throne Room cult, lends an extra cosmic dimension to an already expansive sonic palette. His background in funeral doom lends itself especially well to slower moments; there’s extra texturing that wasn’t necessarily there before, or has been brought forward. The addition of lower, primal roars are another change wrought by Kody; they’re used sparingly sometimes, such as during opener ‘Mountain Magick’ and a little way past the midpoint of ‘Through Eternal Fields’. Other times he’s much more prominent, adding a cavernous dimension to ‘Primal Chasm (Gift Of Fire)’ and ‘Underworld Aurora’.
They stand in contrast to Nathan Weaver’s much higher blackened rasp that fans have come to know and love over the years; his voice evokes frosty landscapes, forests and rivers running through them. Rather than sounding aggressive or overly harsh, instead it’s as if a cold wind is rushing through the soundscapes they create.
SLAUGHTER TO PREVAIL. Even if you’ve not heard their music yet (and if you’ve not, do you live under a rock?) then you’ve heard the name. Their debut album, Misery Sermon highlighted them as a band with promise but one that felt fuelled by hype rather than genuinely great songwriting. Come 2021, with deathcore’s revival in full swing, Alex Terrible and co. are back with second album Kostolom in what’s arguably a make-or-break moment for the band. Either they prove they’re nothing but hype and a big YouTube presence, or that they’re far more than that.
Fortunately, it’s almost immediately obvious that they fall squarely in the latter camp. Not only is Alex Terrible a great vocalist with an obnoxiously broad range but the band backing him are far from slouches either. Kostolom’s strongest asset besides his roars, whispers and even sung vocals is arguably Evgeny Novikov’s drumming that underpins and drives every song forwards in a maelstrom of double bass drum carnage, gravity blasts and titanic groove.
