(Denver-based NCS writer Gonzo brings us reviews of the following three albums released in October, just in time for gray days ahead.)
Call me a downer if you must, but I really hate theme parties.
Come to think of it, I don’t like “themed” anything. I once was dragged to an office party with a “The Office” theme (I shit you not) and it was one of the most excruciating hours of my life. This was the same job that occasionally held “ice cream socials” that consisted of nonverbal weirdos quietly grabbing a small cup, wordlessly putting a scoop of Breyer’s into it, and scampering back to their desks. (“Ice cream antisocial” might be the Anthrax and Weird Al collab we never knew we needed.)
That job, fortunately, was a long time ago, but my stance on themes remains. There’s a caveat now, though: after assembling this column, I realized that all three of the albums I used are all similarly dreary, doomy, and full of despair.
So, with this month’s roundup being perfect music to slit your wrists to, perhaps I’m not as averse to themes as I thought I was.
On that gloriously uplifting note, let’s get right into it.
MOTHER OF GRAVES, THE PERIAPT OF ABSENCE
While they weren’t performing at festivals across the US, the Indiana soul-crushers were evidently hard at work on album #2 since the release of ‘22’s Where the Shadows Adorn.
I love this band’s sound. Mother of Graves all at once reminds me of early Paradise Lost with a fair helping of latter-day Amorphis weaved in. In some parallel dimension, Graves spawned out of the dreariest, most desolate part of the UK imaginable and got signed to Peaceville in the early ’90s.
Fortunately for the rest of us, the incarnation of Mother of Graves that we get in this reality is still a melodic doom powerhouse. The Periapt of Absence isn’t a giant stylistic leap forward for the band, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s eight songs of skillfully crafted American doom, featuring plenty of dynamic songwriting (see “Shatter the Visage”), funereal guitars (the opening notes of “Gallows” set the miserable tone nicely), and emotional weight (“A Scarlet Threnody”).
Each song carries more of a unique identity than on the previous album, and I wonder how much that has to do with the legendary Dan Swanö. While Mother of Graves’ own Ben Sandman was behind the knobs in production, Swanö mastered the record. (I’d wondered what that guy had been up to lately as I was listening to the remaster of Purgatory Afterglow.)
All told, The Periapt of Absence is a mournful yet triumphant cry to the doom gods of old and new.
https://motherofgraves.bandcamp.com/album/the-periapt-of-absence
SWALLOW THE SUN, SHINING
I still maintain that 2003’s The Morning Never Came is one of the best (and probably most underrated) doom metal albums of all time, and I’ve followed this band ever since.
In case you’re unaware (despite DGR‘s recent extensive review of this same album at this same site), Finland’s Swallow the Sun makes music that’s capable of destroying you emotionally. The Morning Never Came is just one example of how they can connect with a listener with the sole intention of doing just that. Shining only continues that trend.
Though I don’t think the band has ever put out anything I’d call “bad,” this new album feels bigger, bolder, and more focused than their last two. With searing shifts in vocals, guitars, and keyboards, the raw emotional weight behind songs like “What Have I Become” echoes the intensity we heard on Songs from the North. It feels like Swallow is stepping away from the funeral doom-like direction they were going and replaced it with what they’re best at, and that’s working in a kickass head-banging riff into the most depressing song you’ve ever heard. “Kold” is another effortless example of this level of mastery.
“November Dust” and “Velvet Chains” are both softer exercises in abject misery, with the latter being a truly beautiful ballad that’s over too soon. In fact, there’s nary a growl to be heard through much of the album’s second half until “Charcoal Sky” picks up the pace into familiarly heavier territory.
The closing title track, to quote a friend, is like being punched in the heart. Is there another way to end a Swallow the Sun album? No. There is not.
https://centurymedia.bandcamp.com/album/shining-24-bit-hd-audio
HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE, MOIRAE
Windsor, Ontario was once romanticized as a utopian contrast to its American neighbor city of Detroit, but that time was long ago. Detroit has risen like a phoenix from its troubled past, and we don’t hear anything about Windsor much anymore.
Hell is Other People would like to remind everyone that no matter where you live, life is miserable, and their sophomore full-length Moirae does a very good job of conveying those feelings.
Sounding somewhere between Agalloch, Ash Borer, and Wolves in the Throne Room, the Canadian quartet proudly carry the torch of audial misery. Vocalist/bassist Nathan Ferreira takes a blowtorch to your eardrums with his maniacal shriek, while founding members James Ditty and Nathan Boots take turns blasting and soothing you with Alcest-like leads.
The first three of the five tracks on Moirae are menacing numbers that feel no need for blast beats, instead relying on seething mid-tempo rage. “Fates” and “Degrade” trudge through the depths of the human psyche, unearthing themes of resentment, spite, and grief.
Closers “Loss” and “Atropos” equate to a combined 20 minutes of sustained aural agony that leaves you with an enormous pit in your stomach, and with a band name like Hell is Other People, I expected nothing less.
https://hellisotherpeoplebm.bandcamp.com/album/moirae
Like what you’ve heard? Follow my best-of-2024 playlist for selections from everything you’ve just read, and a whole helluva lot more.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7zWqE685GVpuB5M3qRDvog?si=08d80939b43e4d89