Winter is approaching which means that musical preferences change alongside the season. For this edition of Only Death Is Real, that change is reflected in the excess of doom that has been released in the last month, with a sprinkling of black metal thrown in for good measure. There’s something about the colder months that brings the impetus for long-form doom and short but sweet black metal. Wrapping up against the outside elements with comforting screams and guttural voices is a curious pastime, I’ll admit, but needs must. Enjoy.
Dream Unending – Song of Salvation (20 Buck Spin)
Dream Unending appeared in this column only a year ago with debut Tide Turns Eternal and it’s a testament to their talent that they have followed that album up so quickly and so perfectly. Song of Salvation stays within the realm of death/doom metal and spins the nebulous textures and ambient structures of the first record further into new dimensions. The duo of Tomb Mold’s Derrick Vella and Innumerable Form’s Justin DeTore are joined by a love of all things heavy and with Dream Unending that weight is felt through DeTore’s abyssal vocal approach and Vella’s dreamy guitars.
Opening on the impressive title track, Song of Salvation immediately pulls you into a world that can only be imagined. Spirals of sound tower towards the heavens as Dream Unending manipulate their instruments into tangible building blocks, each layering onto the last to create new forms and patterns in the ether. Imagination is key to understanding Dream Unending and allowing yourself to be fully immersed in the world they are conjuring is vitally important to the process. As the guitars take flight in the latter minutes of the song and DeTore’s voice tears through the fabric of reality, that world becomes all the more real.
Weaving through Song of Salvation is a thread of tentative hope, the strains of which can be heard in the echoes of “Secret Grief” and the stunning clean vocals provided by ex-Sumerlands vocalist Phil Swanson. The song places much more emphasis on its beginnings as it treads a forlorn path towards the two (almost) instrumental tracks included on the album, allowing the ending to slyly bridge the silence before “Murmur of Voices,” a semi-instrumental that features, funnily enough, a murmur of voices. These whispers are tantalisingly within reach of understanding, yet Dream Unending leave much of their message in the shadows until one voice steps out of the darkness -- “do you believe?”
Final track “Ecstatic Reign” pulls together all the previous elements in its ambient moods, heavy passages, resonant voices and sublime guitar work. Featuring wonderful guest vocalists, the song is a powerful closing piece to an album that seeks to find redemption in the light. McKenna Rae once again lends her beautiful voice to the song, something that she also did on Tide Turns Eternal, bringing a haunting continuity to this new work. Richard Poe also appears on a spoken-word section of the song, once again bringing Song of Salvation into the world first imagined on the debut. It could be that these two characters are the same heard on that album which shows that Dream Unending are truly carrying their story forward with exquisite style.
As the song begins to build in intensity and each voice (this piece also features Tomb Mold’s Max Klebanoff on vocals) winds around the mountainous peaks that the instrumentation has forged, Dream Unending come to the edge of the world. The abrupt end of the song leads to thoughts of taking flight, suddenly leaving the physical ground you were standing on and becoming something new, something different. Whether that journey is one that is taken upwards or deep below the surface is something that will hopefully be revealed on further musical endeavours from the duo. I for one, cannot wait.
Spider God – Fly In The Trap (Self-Released/Repose Records)
Spider God have been creating black metal that usurps the obvious traits of the genre for almost two years, with several EPs based around the filmography of Ingmar Bergman: an EP of pop song covers and now a debut full-length that uses the true story of Elisa Lam and the mystery surrounding her death at the Cecil Hotel as a vessel for their sound. The curious aspects of her death are dealt with a sympathetic hand by Spider God as they seek to shed light on one of the most disturbing unsolved mysteries of modern times.
Melodic black metal is not the first genre you would think of to tackle such a heavy subject and it’s a strange feeling indeed, to be aware of the themes and to then enjoy the output as rendered through harmonious rhythms and groove. The battle between the subject matter and the musical style of Spider God is one that is ever present in the mind while listening and it does seem that this is intentional, that the band want you to have these opposing thoughts and to then reflect on the story and yourself in turn. It’s a dialogue you enter into when the bombast of “A Thousand Lonely Spiders” spins into the lyrics and you start to pay more attention to what is being said.
“Labyrinth of Hallways” makes its mark initially with a somewhat more downbeat pace as Spider God take a moment to breathe in an album that is almost always at full throttle. The melodies are still present yet the song begins its journey with a slower momentum while gently building towards the more rambunctious style they are known for. We also hear a guest vocal from Rope Sect’s Inmesher (who also appeared with the band at their live debut in London earlier this year) on this track which adds a welcome new taste to the band.
Spider God are one of the more interesting bands the UK has to offer within the black metal underground and are certainly one to pay attention to going forward. The curiosity they elicit in their choices of subject matter and the way in which they formulate their sound is something to be impressed by and future releases should hopefully follow this pattern closely.
Tchornobog / Abyssal - Split (Self-Released/Lupus Lounge)
It’s not often that a musical piece starts with the sound of a chorus of vomiting, willingly recorded by those regurgitating whatever they had eaten that day and sent to Tchornobog’s mastermind Markov Soroka. Not without good reason, of course -- a staple of the Tchornobog live performance is Markov themself vomiting black liquid shortly after appearing on stage and so incorporating others into the process seems like the next logical step. “The Vomiting Choir” lives up to its name and is an interesting beginning to the experience of this split. Here, Tchornobog and Abyssal come together to present two long-form compositions that take you down their own particular paths of black/death/doom metal while maintaining links to each other throughout. There’s a clever musical motif that appears in both tracks and as it turns out, the same drummer is present on both.
For Tchornobog’s side, “The Vomiting Choir” brings in several elements of the sound that was present on their debut album, Tchornobog, with guttural vocals playing off cavernous guitars, drum patterns that are laden with curious groove and a distinctly off-kilter mood allowing for the band to open up to several different changes in rhythm and style. It’s smartly done as each section is given time to breathe and expand before the song swerves into other territory. As “The Vomiting Choir” progresses we hear the band move from deep and doomed death metal, blackened death metal and into beautiful melody. Strange inflections are found in violins and brass instrumentation that never overstay their welcome and instead enhance the bizarre journey that is captured through the mind of Tchornobog. It’s difficult to distil one single track that runs for almost 25 minutes down to its essence, but Tchornobog are not an easy band to categorise. It has to be heard to be believed.
The second track on the split comes from the UK’s Abyssal and, much like Tchornobog, is led by one person (G.D.C.), with a live line-up and guest musicians for some elements of recording. As mentioned previously, Abyssal’s side also includes the drummer Ragnar Sverrisson from Iceland, which makes sense as the drums were recorded in the country through Studio Emissary who also completed the mastering of the split. “Antechamber of the Wakeless Mind” is another sub 25 minute composition that snakes through intense passages of unfathomable depth with vocals that are dredged from the very core of the earth. Musically the song passes through the colossal aspects of the Abyssal sound in its intricate layers of guitars and drums that work with G.D.C.’s incredible vocal performance, one that is both horrific and enthralling all at once in terms of the pure depths that are reached.
The song takes its time in its progression as it encompasses the slow, mournful stages of doom before ramping up the pace and switching to the blackened style the band also find their musical home in. “Antechamber of the Wakeless Mind” is often terrifying in the moments where darkness seems to rule over all yet there are short bursts of clarity where the clouds part and touches of beauty are found in the guitar work, especially the repeated motif that was first heard in “The Vomiting Choir” by Tchornobog. One of the true highlights in the song from Abyssal is the gorgeously rendered choral chant section towards the end of the track. The hypnotic repetition burrows under the skin and its not until the song comes to a close that the spell is finally broken. Have the last minutes been real or a fever dream?
Worm – Bluenothing (20 Buck Spin)
Last year’s Foreverglade was a highlight for many when list season came around and 2022 brings a new Worm EP to the proverbial table. Bluenothing is a masterclass in death-influenced doom and as the band have grown over the years and refined their sound, their music has become even more emotive and effective. Everything here is rendered with atmosphere in mind and what Worm have on Bluenothing is untold layers of gorgeous, heartbreaking guitar, sadness that permeates every moment and divinely curated choral chants.
“Bluenothing” takes in monumental depths as Phantom Slaughter’s voice pulls you further into the darkness created by the clever synths and soaring guitars and as it moves on towards “Centuries of Ooze II” we experience cascading passages that build with palpable tension. The clean sections of vocals are stunning in their bittersweet melodies and are used to great effect, just enough to leave you wanting more but not so much that you are bored. The dungeon synth style of the intermission is a smart move that gives space for resetting before the finality of “Shadowside Kingdom” comes into view. The song spends half of its runtime on building the world through acoustic guitars and synths before it bursts with life and fire, leading to a dramatic crescendo that expands the mind and brings Bluenothing to a crushing end.
