Convocation - No Dawn for the Caliginous Night

It has been said that without dark, there is no light and without light, there is no dark.  Finland's Convocation and their third full length album, 'No Dawn for the Caliginous Night' disagrees vehemently with this quote. 

There is another kind of darkness.  A darkness that existed first and will be the last thing to exist.  A darkness so bleak, so black, that light itself is absorbed and spat out, adding to its own growing and ever infinite coldness.

For their third full length album, the band still brings funeral doom and long form songs.  However, the up in quality to this album from their previous one 'Ashes Coalesce' is greater than the distance between that album had from their debut, "Scars Across."  By finding a balance between the two albums, Convocation have easily created their heaviest album to date yet also the one with the most progression.

In small, subtle increments,  Convocation has stretched their sound to a much more dynamic nature yet their brand of misery remains as abraded and denuded as ever. In a weird but welcome twist to their sound, it makes their songs even more expansive and open yet also as claustrophobic and death-laden to an almost insane degree.  

Organ, violin, cello and choirs are added among quite a few guest stars who all help the duo of LLaaksonen and MNeuman vomit forth a light eating varlet.   

'Atychiphobia,' is quite possibly the best song Convocation has written to date.  Much like the definition of the word, the song is definitely giving off vibes of nervous energy that builds toward the monumental feeling of doing all you can and still failing.  Big things in life aren't always good---you can fail and falterer in grand fashions as well.  Around the 2:45 mark, the song very slightly changes direction and turns into a stalking, lumbering carnivore. The drums are insane here, a perfect compliment to the music.  Clean, melodic notes touch down over the distortion and it makes the song even more dense, even more layered. A sort of regality in the later half arrives in the form of a sparse, melodic section that bridges the gape between the unknown.

'Between Aether and Land,' is an instrumental that is perfectly placed between the album's two halves.  It's intro allows for the briefest of respite but the dawn slowly slips away.  A sense of time slips away as the band's unique style takes over the horizon.

'Lepers and Derelicts,' is another one of their best song.  This eleven minute doom epic is insane.  It has a slow and ominous build up--a classic approach.  The riffs are sweltering and the vocals match their intensity as they are straight up ghastly.  I love the clean instrumentation and how it fills up the spaces in between--it is a void within a void.   The last few minutes of the song are so good----the clean vocals, slow gallop riffs and the pounding drums all coming together make for quite the spectacle.  Then the death growls rip through it all, the music both evil and atmospheric as the song settles in for a mighty powerful dirge.

I'm a big fan of Ferum, it is a very nice touch to feature their guitarist/vocalist Samantha doing spoken word/narration on 'Procession.'  This track is huge, offering more than some full albums have this year.  Of their three albums, this one has the best final track.  Everything I like about this band in general, and this album in particular, is represented in this final funeral walk.  The viciousness of the vocals that begin around the nine minute mark are astounding.   The music is slow, deep, and hard for the perfect foundation.  

It is always a risk to release albums in the very beginning or ending of the year as those types have the higher risk of being overlooked as the busy music season winds down.  At this time a lot of writers and publications have already published their year end lists or at least made up their minds.   They might want to take all that back because Convocation's 'No Dawn for the Caliginous Night' is a late year game changer and a truly perfect example of the genre.

10/10

Vastum - Inward To Gethsemane

This album is truly a terrifying and evil experience.  This death metal isn't really rotten or filthy to the core but instead just straight up bleak and dismal.  There isn't any hope to be had other than the hope to be pummeled to death while drowning in your own tears.  This has the riffs and energy of ODSM, the atmosphere of a snuff porn, and the despondent requiem of doom metal.  

Morning Dead - Desde el Otro Lado

Who says funeral doom has to be presented in long form only?  Although I love a long song as much as next doom fan, not every song or album needs to break records for the longest piece of music ever written.  It's easy to think otherwise, but the sound of funeral doom doesn't really have anything to do with the runtime of a song.  It has to do with the mood, atmosphere, the approach, and the straight up goddamn permeating miasma of sorrow.  

Morning Dead's 'Desde el Otro Lado' has all this down to a very fine detail and they don't have to spend twenty minutes per song to get the message across.  The longest song is still under the six minute mark and the overall runtime of these tracks is around 40 minutes.  This is a different approach to funeral doom than most bands of the style would take.  This shorter approach to the genre allows the band to only include what needs to be here.  There isn't any moments of three minute long silences or long outros that do nothing but waste time and pretend to add depth.   This is compact, pure, and highly engaging funeral death doom.  I found myself more and more impressed with this album the more I listened to it.  Another advantage of taking this approach to the genre is that the whole album is easy to digest and repeat in one setting.  This makes the songs, the details, sink in much faster and stay with you longer.  

Another standout dynamic of this album is how musical it is.  It doesn't start with a standard intro...the band named this track 'Overture' and that is exactly what it is.  It may take a different approach musically but it is the leading track of similarly themed ones to follow.  For all intents and purposes, this an album that unfurls like a play or opera: it has strong individual moments but it works best when listened to from beginning to end in one setting.  This is one giant moving piece and it needs to be treated as such for full effect. 

The band doesn't rest on the same riff over and over and over like a lot of funeral doom nor does it have much in the way of guitar that is just there to only create a mood and act more like a blanket of heavy than true notes.  The songs here are much more involved with that and each piece leads to the next. In essence, this is very "song oriented" and it is all the better for it. 

After 'Overture,' comes 'Inmerso en el Abismo.'  This song begins with very murky guitar and melancholic harmonies.  After about a minute, a hellish growl is let loose and claws at the surface of the riffs.  It is very exciting despite the deeply dark mood and I found myself immediately hooked. 

Soon as it ends, 'Amanecer de Muerte' begins and brings with it Gothic tinged lead guitar that brushes up against the strong riffs.  It is all risen up by robust double bass and truly wonderful death growls.  The melody passes by one more time before the song releases a diabolical guitar tone that is actually kind of frightening. 

'Desolaction' is one of the more straight forward songs on the album, nearly pure death doom but with the same textures and nuances that make it another strong piece to this musical tapestry.  The clean keys and the guitar suite each other so well despite their different approaches.  The atmosphere grows more ominous throughout before it trails back off to clean keys that leads us to.....

'....Viento Austral' and its aural assault.  The clean keys are gone, replaced by furious snare driven attacks and the keyboards providing a more sinister backdrop.  The bass and drums are especially good here, constantly highlighting the song's intentions. 

'Agonia Putrefacta,' is lumbering behemoth of a track.  The drums are on point, cracking the whip at just the right moment to accent the riffs.  The bass is its own beast entirely and its tone is perfect: deep, strong and able to enhance song's mood.  There are moments of speed to make the slithering snake-like notes even more venomous.  

'Hadal' is an ambient piece but it fits right in after the aforementioned song and leads into the next one.  It's tones are not spacious or sunny----it may not be a 'metal' track but its just as claustrophobic and hopeless and serves its purposes well.  

'Suplicio' is the next one and its sweltering riffs are just what was needed at this point in the album.  This song has kind of a baroque feel to it, very deep in tone in all aspects with a natural, raw power behind it. 

'Grito del Alma' is the soundtrack to the end of the world but despite the mood, it is beautiful in a very surreal way. If I picked out a favorite moment on this album, it would probably be this one.  The scope of the song is cinematic and sweeping but not in a bombastic way.  This introspective look is one that leads to the deepest of holes, a panoramic darkness. 

'Naufragio,' ends the album with clean pianos and ambient textures, a sort of stormy movement with the keys being drops of acid rain. It kind of reminds of 'Desolacion' in a few ways and I've no doubt that was done on purpose.    A fitting end to this album.  

This album is quite the dark passion play and one the more unique and interesting doom albums I've heard this year.  "Desde el Otro Lado' is definitely a grand piece of music that can appeal to both doom and non-doom fans (or even people who don't even like metal) because of it's dismal yet thoughtful approach to the genre. 

Dyssebeia - Garden of Stillborn Idols

DYSSEBEIA  play what could be described as progressive blackened death metal.  When the word "prog" pops up in a band's description, a lot of people assume the worst.  Is it going to be pretentious?  Will it have lots of overstuffed filler that only matters to the band?  Will the album be too long, one song stretched across six full-lengths, an EP, short story and a three season tv show that was cut short and ended on a cliff hanger?

Joking aside, DYSSEBEIA don't have any of that.  This eight track album has a tight run time of 43 minutes, the band making the most of it.  There isn't any note or passage on these songs that doesn't need to be there and there is nothing the listener needs to skip.  The song structures aren't hindered by conventional means but they still make sense within context of the album. 

The album twists and turns as it moves along.  The ever evolving songs feature variations of often gorgeous melodies, ever changing riffs that move effortlessly from genre to genre, and evolving vocal patterns paired with rhythmic shifts. Despite all that, despite the earful of features crammed into it, this album still remains firmly grounded in extreme metal.   It going to make you think and wonder about what's around the next musical bend but it's also going to smash in your stupid face while doing so. 

The journey begins with 'Mors Tua, Vita Mea' and its deep but clean tones.  They build up perfectly into a distorted beast in under a minute.  A flourish of melodic notes ride the edge of the riffs as the song grows more involved, speeding up the tempo as well.  I love that scream/growl that pieces the atmosphere while those groovy riffs flow about.

The solo is surprisingly soaring and emotive but I have to mention how commanding the bass and drums are, holding it all down while helping to steer this very stalwart ship.

'Moon Bearer,' roars to go from the first half second---those riffs are damn fine and can't believe how smooth such extreme music is.  The biggest factor in determining how well anything under the prog banner does is how smooth the many moving parts can work together and if the flow stays consistent.  'Moon Bearer' is a fine example of just great the songwriting is, how well the band can adapt on the fly while still remaining super focused.  

'Hatch' is one of my favorites on the album.  It is a very moody track with a downtrodden atmosphere and that change in the dynamic really keeps the album fresh five tracks in.  The tragedy of the song is strong but engaging, the band always keeping their foot on the gas with ideas ready to burst forth but still committed to give each available second the attention it deserves.

The tempo speeds up in places but the spaces in between feature deep slabs of bass and the right amount of melody.  

The final song, 'Apophenia,' is groovy as fuck and presents itself as a straight up death metal track.  With that being said, it still features plenty of nooks and crannies that combine to hooks that keep it an earworm despite the extreme path it takes in the beginning.  

Around the 3:11 mark, it goes quiet for a moment as if to quickly erase its past only to reinvent itself as something much more melodic.  The next minute and a half is beautiful and freeing but the past is never forgotten even after the band looks forward.  The song returns to its more violent roots and finishes itself, and the album, on the highest of highs.

With 'Garden of Stillborn Idols,' DYSSEBEIA have crafted a wonderful album full of so many amazing details.  Despite including everything and the kitchen sink, this isn't an album that overwhelms but instead pulls the listener along for the ride.  Fans of death, black, and prog will find much to enjoy here but even if a person doesn't like one or more of those genres, then this is a beast of an album that will change the mind.  

9/10