SCHAMMASCH – THE MALDOROR CHANTS: OLD OCEAN

(Andy Synn plumbs the depths of the new album from Schammasch, out next Friday)

Let me tell you something – I regard Schammasch‘s stunning second album, the now decade-old duology entitled Contradiction, to be one of the finest, yet also most underrated, Black Metal albums of the post-millennium period.

And while I understand and appreciate (and, to an extent, share) the love for Triangle – their even more ambitious triple-disc follow-up – and the way it allowed them to explore three subtly different aspects of their sound,  the truth is that nothing since then has quite managed to achieve that same balance between esoteric creativity and focussed fluidity (with 2019’s Hearts of No Light in particular being a collection of artistically intriguing tracks which still, somehow, felt like less than the sum of its parts).

So when I say that Old Ocean is, in my opinion at least, the band’s strongest, most consistent, and most captivating work since 2014… you’ll understand how much that means.

Purists, of course, may question whether the band can truly still call themselves “Black Metal”, such is the variety and versatility of the group’s sound, which moves back and forth between enchanting, minimalist ambience, moodily melodic, broodingly progressive introspection, and artfully atmospheric – not to mention keeningly cathartic – metallic grandeur (rich in both mournful clean vocals and simmering, slow-burning power)… and that’s just the first song (“Crystal Waves”).

But then the entire idea behind “true” Black Metal has always seemed limiting and creatively stagnant to me (hell, most of the genre’s originators probably wouldn’t even pass muster to some folks these days) and Schammasch have never been ones to restrict their vision, or restrain their ambitions, to satisfy what others expect (or demand) of them.

And in that regard Old Ocean is no exception.

Indeed, the aforementioned variety is a big part of this album’s greatest strength, as the band’s new album is a tightly woven tapestry of different threads, different elements, each of which – including the gorgeously gloomy “A Somber Mystery” and the decidedly un-blackened beauty of “Image of the Infinite” – contribute to the greater whole and the wider picture being formed over the course of these fifty-one minutes.

And while the final image is one of impressive depth and complexity – with more and more of the album’s intricate details revealing themselves the closer that you look (or listen) – it’s to the band’s credit (and a testament to their songwriting skills) that while many of these individual elements are relatively simple and refined (see, for example, the hypnotic leads and primal rhythms so carefully intertwined during “Your Waters Are Bitter”, or the mesmerising vocal mantras and sinuous, cyclical tremolo melodies of “They Have Found Their Master”) their collective impact is far more profound.

This is particularly apparent during extravagant, almost eleven minute, closer “I Hail You, Old Ocean”, which combines proggily melodic mysticism and seething blackened intensity with moments of soaring, Trad-Metal majesty (including some shamelessly bombastic, arena-sized riffs) and layers of darkly doomy atmosphere, into something which arguably defies easy categorisation – and is all the better for it.

Which, perhaps, sums up Schammasch as a whole, as a band who willingly work with, but not within, genre limits, twisting and twining them to serve their own purpose… and not the other way around.