Witherer - Shadow Without a Horizon

Witherer is a blackened death/doom band from Canada who formed in 2015.  Their latest release, “Shadow Without a Horizon,” is their full-length debut album; they have also released a demo and a split. 

“Shadow Without a Horizon,” is the exact sound I’m looking for with blackened doom.  The band has created an album that is as convincing with clean tones as it is with more extreme notions.  Moments of sullen despondency echo through an atmosphere of what can only be described as “starving to death while succumbing to psychosis because your dumbass got lost in a cave.” 

The heavier aspects are suffocating but devoid of any light.  With that being said, there is a certain animalistic, primal energy to the album that’s hard to explain.  Even during the slow parts, the songs are engaging and memorable.  It takes tight songwriting skills to keep long songs interesting and Witherer has zero issues with this. 

The vocals are wild:  inhuman screams, disturbing growls, and a vicious attack that doesn’t let up.  The only thing worse than being in darkness is facing the creature within; Guitarist Øhrracle and Guitarist/bassist/keyboardist Tiamoath seem to share these vocal duties and they are truly frightening. 

Even with the finality of such bleak doom, there is a subtle atmosphere in the album that ebbs and flows against a current that is downright violent one minute and then depressive the next.  Drummer Hex handles all this with expert precision—he drums his ass off and is able to handle any mood or structure the band throws at him. 

The album opens with “Fiat Umbra (Burial Beneath The Stalactites)” and it’s a 15-minute-long banger.   I like the way it slowly unfurls from black to darker than black—as the second tick by, the music gets deeper and heavier as it becomes one of the more extreme moments of doom I’ve heard in this second half of the year. 

The clean passage intertwined amongst the doom works very well because it flows smoothly and both approaches complement each other but it never feels uneven. The moment of silence after the 9-minute mark is brief but deafening while making the passages that follow it all the more potent. 

“Devourer of All Graveyards,” takes a quicker, immediate approach with a cacophony of destructive noises barreling out in the opening moments.  The vocals spew forth above the groovy riffs, all of which is pounded by the pervasive drums.  The intro effortlessly slides into a passage that is a little psychedelic, in terms of the song’s continued descent into madness.  The final half is an unique blend of melody and ghostly tones that pushes the song into new dimensions.

Bridging the two halves of the album together is the instrumental “The Wailing Hours (Plummeting Under The Tunnels)” and it’s an ambient piece that fits right at home with the album’s themes and pacing.

That song notwithstanding, “Solar Collapse Mandala,” is the shortest one here but still over seven minutes.  The creepy vocals start the song off with an unnerving vibe, a condition that never really lets up.  The slower tempo passages are some of the album’s most doomed out moments but it’s also full of kick ass riffs that get the blood pumping.  The guitar tone is sinister, moving through liminal spaces like a slithering creature of the night.

The final song, “Praises (Gliding Through The Lightless Sea)” is my favorite song on the album.  It has a fantastic, steady beat with the drums and vocals both rolling out in a thunderous fashion while the song still retains a hopeless atmosphere.  The bass drop around the 3:35 mark kicks off a new section of the song, one that is darkly melodic and even a little Gothic.  From here, the song presents itself as a slumbering beast that is slowly coming to life. 

All in all, Witherer’s “Shadow Without a Horizon,” is an extreme doom album filled with everything that makes the genre so great, but it has more than enough black and death elements for fans of those genres to enjoy too.

Rating: Excellent