For the second review in a row, I heard about a band via skimming YouTube, heard something I liked, and tracked down their promo. I’m used to working this from the other direction, but when the almighty algorithm gives, one must take and be thankful. Domhain is an atmospheric post-black metal band from Northern Ireland, and In Perfect Stillness is their debut full-length. With an emotionally charged sound and style, Domhain touches on the past works of Darkest Era, Primordial, and Agalloch while utilizing cellos and haunting female vocals to punctuate the melancholic, often grim moods they wallow in. Over the album’s runtime, they do a lot of things very well and a few things spectacularly. What they do best is keep me locked in, listening raptly to the ebb and flow of their compositions. There’s something here, and that something has teeth.

At just over 35 minutes, In Perfect Stillness is composed of a mood-setting intro and 4 songs running between 7-9 minutes. With so little meat on the bone, the marrow had best be savory and memorable, and Domhain achieve that. First track proper “Talamh Lom” kicks off in highly Gothic realms with post-y cold trems ungirding Andy Ennis’ plaintive, forlorn clean singing. He lapses into harsh blackened croaks soon enough, and when things slow down, the sawing cello appears alongside sad, ethereal vocals from cellist/drummer Anaïs Chareyre. It’s a beautiful and poignant combination that keeps you listening attentively as the band moves between harsh and fragile, heavy and soft. There’s a beautiful flow to the music that carries you away to another place and makes you forget about the passage of time. There are slight touches of A Swarm of the Sun here alongside Darkest Era-esque moments, and there’s a vague Warning vibe in the music too. “Footsteps II” bears a strong resemblance to the moodier moments of Ghost Brigade and Deathwhite, which is an easy way to win me over as the sadboi feelz flow like hobo wine on Skid Row.

The title track brings strong Agalloch notes as downcast but furious black metal takes centerstage, and select moments remind me of Nechochwen as well. The way the ethereal female vocals pair with the blackened rasps is captivating and expertly done, creating a wealth of emotional resonance. The album’s high point arrives with the 9-plus-minute “My Tomb Beneath the Tide,” which is a gigantic dose of negative emotions delivered in a beautiful, beguiling package. Here, the post-black, melodoom, and atmospheric black metal ingredients coalesce into a potent brew that will make you feel things you might not want. There’s an epic scope to the song that recalls the best of Primordial, but I hear a lot of vintage Votum in the vocals, and the shifts from harsh to sullen and soft are very well-conceived and executed. This is easily my favorite song so far in 2026, and I can’t stop getting lost in the moods here. The production is quite good, but there’s a weird background static-hiss that leaks through at times, most noticeably on “My Tomb Beneath the Tide.” It’s a bit distracting, and I hoped it was just on the video, but it’s on the promo copy as well, which is unfortunate.

The vocal combination of Andy Ennis and Anaïs Chareyre pays major dividends across In Perfect Stillness. Ennis has a convincingly dour singing voice that conveys grief and despair, and his blackened rasps are equally powerful. When he leans more toward death roars, he reminds me a bit of Nick Holmes of Paradise Lost. The guitar work by Nathan Irvine and Bryn Boothby sets the dark, dreary tableau perfectly. The frantic, post-y trems and the savage blackened riffage deliver real impact, and their morose doom noodling and trilling captivate the ear. This is an ensemble that knows how to toy with the listener’s heart and mind, and over the too-short runtime, they have their way with you emotionally again and again.

Domhain have a great thing going here, and though it isn’t something entirely new, they stamp it with enough identity to make it their own. In Perfect Stillness is a short, sharp shock to the part of the brain that deals with feelings, and there’s a genuine, raw beauty to their music that sticks with you long after you step away. It’s the rare album I wish were longer, and I actually don’t want it to end when it does. That’s a sure sign that a band created something special. Hear this sooner rather than later, as it will make waves.



Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: These Hands Melt
Websites: domhain-band.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/domhain.band | instagram.com/domhain_band
Releases Worldwide: February 20, 2026

#TheMetalDogArticleList
#BraveWords–WhereMusicLives

THE MAN-EATING TREE Release Night Verses Album; Full Audio Stream Available

https://bravewords.com/news/the-man-eating-tree-release-night-verses-album-full-audio-stream-available/

#TheManEatingTree #NightVerses #NobleDemon #FinnishMetal #HeavyMetal #GhostBrigade #Poisonblack #MorsSubita #Entwine #JanneMarkus

Soliloquium – Famine Review

By Steel Druhm

In my never-ending quest to accumulate as many bands as possible that remind me of tragically defunct Finnish doom-death legends, Rapture, I crossed paths with Sweden’s two-man project, Soliloquium, back in 2018 through their Contemplations album. It was an entirely pleasant slab of moody, emotive melancholic death borrowing from early Katatonia, Insomnium, and of course, Rapture. It scratched an itch and made me a fan. 2020s Things We Leave Behind hit just as COVID was starting its assault on the world, and the album’s downcast and depressive beauty became a staple in the House of Steel as we watched the world lock down and drift. Somehow, I missed that Soliloquium dropped a new album in 2022, and I almost missed their latest too. Famine is the band’s fifth release, and Stefan Nordström and Jonas Bergkvist are still steering the ship, though this time they invited lots of friends to help out. Can this depressive duo keep the weepy doom-death flowing like fine wine on a cold Swedish day?

Things start out promising on the wide-ranging title track. It’s in the usual Soliloquium modality, with morose clean croons and sparse melancholic guitar plucking giving way to darker tones with guttural death roars and blackened shrieks cropping up. Doomy harominies percolate and fall off, and the mood is kept dark and brooding. The equipoise between melodic trills and the crushing quasi-death-doom is well executed and convincing. Strong hints of October Tide and Swallow the Sun flow freely, and the feel of a brutal winter of discontent is achieved. At the 3:45 point, things seem to end, only to lurch back into what sounds like an entirely new composition, and by the end of the 6:37 runtime, the enterprise ends up feeling long but worthwhile. Far superior is “2 A.M.,” which perfectly encapsulates all that’s right with the Soliloquium sound. It has a lot of Rapture’s best elements blended in, and there’s some beautifully emotional guitar work here in the vein of Tuomas Saukkonen’s Before the Dawn / Black Sun Aeon style. Jari Lindholm (Enshine, ex-Slumber) provides amazing lead guitar work here, elevating the song several degrees, and the nods to Katatonia’s Brave Murder Day era are icing on the depression cake.

Other solid moments include the later era Anathema-esque fragile Goth of “The Healing Process,” where beautiful vocals from Bianca Höllmüller enhance the weepy charms; and the very Ghost Brigade-esque doom rock of “Poison Well,” where Chelsea Rocha-Murphy of Dawn of Ouroboros drops by to keep things despondent with her haunting vocals. I especially enjoy the death n’ roll bit that erupts around the 3-minute mark. “Själamörker” is also quite tasty. Sung in the duo’s native Swedish, Stefan Nordström effectively blends his sadboi cleans and mammoth cookie monster roars on a bulldozer of a tune that hits every doom-death trope. It’s heavy but sorrowful, crushing but melodic. Unfortunately, things go pear-shaped for the album’s final third, where the heavy reliance on clean singing turns out to be ill-conceived. The last 3 tracks all suffer greatly from vocal issues (Stefan’s or his guests) as clean but underpowered, droning, and overly twee vocal tones become prevalent. The songs themselves have good things going for them, but they can’t overcome the vocal shortcomings. At 51 minutes, Famine also suffers from bloat, especially on the final few “troubled” tracks.

While I’ve always appreciated Stefan’s death and blackened vocals, he wasn’t known for his clean singing, usually employing guest singers to do the job. Here, he tries to carry more of the load himself with mixed results. While he’s effective on “The Healing Process,” he too often adopts a static, droning Goth-rock style that feels weak, flat, and entirely lacking in oomph. This derails tracks like “Weight of the Unspoken” and the closing epic “Vigil.” On the plus side, his death roars and blackened rasps are spot on and as effective as ever. His guitar work is always high quality and a reason the material resonates, as he does a good job conveying a bleak, cold atmosphere across Famine, borrowing from all the big names in the genre for some inspired moments.

I’m a fan of what Soliloquium do and there are great moments of melancholic doom here, but the writing isn’t as consistent as before and the vocal shortcomings are sometimes glaring. If Famine stopped at “Själamörker, ” this would be a very good album. It doesn’t, though, and by the final act, the weaknesses begin to show through. Warts and all, Famine is still a worthwhile listen with some big moments. Fans of the sadboi ways should give it a chance and see how it hits them in the feelz. I still miss Rapture.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Meuse Music
Websites: soliloquium.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/soliloquiumband
Releases Worldwide: April 11th, 2025

#2025 #30 #Apr25 #BeforeTheDawn #Contemplations #DeathMetal #DoomMetal #Famine #GhostBrigade #Katatonia #MeuseMusicRecords #OctoberTide #Rapture #Review #Reviews #Soliloquium #SwallowTheSun #SwedishMetal #TheThingsWeLeaveBehind

The Nidra – Destination Locked [Things You Might Have Missed 2024]

By Twelve

In the last few months of 2024, I found myself on an Eternal Tears of Sorrow kick. I’ve loved their music for a long time now, and am sorely missing new releases. The news of the band’s official hiatus was rough to read, and it got me wondering what other projects the band members are involved in. Lo and behold, Risto Ruuth and Jarmo Kylmänen (guitars and singing respectively) teamed up with drummer Heikki Vähäkuopus just this year to form The Nidra, a melodic progressive metal project that released its debut, Destination Locked, in April. Destination Locked does not fill the Eternal Tears of Sorrow-shaped hole in my heart, nor does it try to, but it does boast the impressive musicianship and quality I’ve come to expect from this beloved group.

You could be forgiven for thinking initially that Destination Locked is a power metal album, as opener “Akasha” takes the general brightness and shine of Before the Bleeding Sun and ups the speed manifold, involving wild duos of guitar and keys solos that leave Kylmänen practically racing to keep up. The wild spin is a great start, but as Destination Locked, its general sound becomes rooted in more standard melodic/prog metal unions. What makes it stand out, then, is the compositions, both in the serious songs and the fun ones. Ruuth in particular is never predictable but always strong, whether his guitars are taking the lead as in “Swaying Bridges” or are supporting players in “Less Than Meets the Eye.” When he does break out the solos, they’re mesmerizing—”The Colors of Reality” in particular boasts his skill. Someone is doing similarly impressive work on the keys, though I have no idea who. Generally, they’re in solo mode, but are there as backing instruments, adding a melodic sheen to the album.

Destination Locked has a clean mix and strong songwriting, so it’s naturally at its best when all three musicians are allowed to shine together. “The Seventh Wave” is a great example—the keys are constantly soloing, the guitars and drums a perfect backdrop of heaviness, and Kylmänen’s singing is layered in the chorus to great effect. These choruses are where he shines best; his vocal style reminds me of Manne Ikonen’s in Ghost Brigade, including a tendency for asymmetrical vocal melodies. While I can see that taking a spin or two for some to get used to, his range across Destination Locked gives it a depth and dimension that is harder to achieve with just a (really fast) drummer, guitarist, and keyboard, and I appreciate his style. Another highlight of his is on “Degenerated,” where his impassioned delivery in the verses and high notes in the chorus are awesome to hear—right before Ruuth gives one of the best solos of the album.

As far as I can tell, Destination Locked was put together for the fun of it—I’ve found barely any promotion for it, the entire album is available on YouTube, and it comes from a group of musicians whose other projects are not particularly active. Despite that, the songwriting, production, and musicianship are consistently superb throughout. This is an easy one to have missed in 2024, but is well worth checking out if you enjoy bright, zany music as much as I do; The Nidra make Destination Locked an absolute delight.

Tracks to Check Out: “The Colors of Reality,” “Apocalyptic iShine,” “Degenerated”

#2024 #DestinationLocked #EternalTearsOfSorrow #FinnishMetal #GhostBrigade #PowerMetal #ProgressiveMetal #Review #Reviews #TheNidra #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed2024

AMG’s Unsigned Band Rodeö: Siren Oath – Loveless

By Dolphin Whisperer

“AMG’s Unsigned Band Rodeö” is a time-honored tradition to showcase the most underground of the underground—the unsigned and unpromoted. This collective review treatment continues to exist to unite our writers in boot or bolster of the bands who remind us that, for better or worse, the metal underground exists as an important part of the global metal scene. The Rodeö rides on.”

Are people really allowed to call albums Loveless still? One brave man from Poland, Bobek Bobkovski, seems determined to strike in the face of that shoegaze classic with his own downcast escapades of a far more metallic nature. Siren Oath, with a love for amp tones and a distance from happiness, seeks to explore every creative wile that Bobkovski has to offer, all of which fall in post, black, and riff-centered shapes. And unlike some solitary acts, the mastermind of Siren Oath relies on his proficiency in real instruments to construct his works. So with talent enough to fuel his passion, can Loveless make lovers of our discerning Rodeö crew? – Dolphin Whisperer

Siren Oath // Loveless [September 27th, 2024]

Dolphin Whisperer: Conjuring the big sad requires some level of earnestness in performance. And for an act like Siren Oath, a one-man project, that truthful pathos that adorns every crack of Bobek Bobkovski’s post-grunge-y, lightly accented drawl goes a long way across Loveless. Whether conjuring the reverb-heavy clean to bone-crushingly heavy depressive assault of Ghost Brigade (“Nothing to Be Afraid Of,” “Praying for Your Life,” “Gone Forever”) or the waltzing black metal lament of early Shining (“The Inside,” “The Saviour”), his rough but full mid-range croon—or scattered array of harsh vocal techniques—land fitting enough to his missions of sadness. And when the goal shifts toward aggression, like the bridge-to-breakdown tearing of “If I Leave You” or the groove/nu leaning harmonic scuttle of “Forced to Live”—complete with the bounciest drum performance of the album—Bobkovski hits a proper throaty howl that fills the stage as wide as his pleasantly crunchy guitars. In a curious decision, and I’m entirely unsure it’s intentional on Siren Oath’s part, many of the shortest run songs on Loveless, despite having choruses (and rather big ones at that), end not with a chorus reprisal at close but some other musical intensification like a breakdown or heavy modulation. On occasion though, certain tracks wade to heavy into post-genre guitar textures and lose the pace against the urgency that persists elsewhere. And closing track “Christantemum” plays as nothing but an exploration with a saxophone and shoegazing guitar waves. But these quibbles do little to detract from what is overall an enjoyable experience. 3.0/5.0

Thus Spoke: I consider myself a reasonably big fan of “sadboi” metal.12 With this tongue-in-cheek descriptor presented as a selling point of Siren Oath’s sophomore record, Loveless, with an additional promise of black metal, I was sold. But Siren Oath caught me by surprise by sounding absolutely nothing like I anticipated. That’s not (entirely) a bad thing. There is indeed many a tremolo riff and plenty of rasping snarls, tendencies towards the mellow that follow the hazy, almost folk-like scale progressions over shuffling drums that associate most strongly with atmo-black (“The Inside”). Even the ringing atmospheric sections (“Becoming,” “Saviour”) would be at home in most modern blackened albums, “post-” or not. What sticks out, however, are the pretensions to sludge, post-hardcore, and rock. Sometimes, even though confusing, it’s great nonetheless, like the angsty “wooahhs” on opener “If I Leave You,” the gaze-y moodiness of “Nothing to be Afraid of,” or the aggressive grooves laid down on “Forced to Live.” Yet, as the album progresses, it’s difficult not to feel the tonal whiplash. It begins to detract from the strength of the whole, in spite of the individual strengths of each track. There’s a lot to like, but Siren Oath needs to pick a lane, or more seamlessly integrate their many stylistic leanings, the next time around. Mixed.

Remember, the artists you support are people! And they like burgers!

Alekhine’s Gun: As the winter finally descends upon us, Siren Oath arrives to escort us into the cold. Loveless is a post-metal sadboi release, flirting with everything from shades of blackened ’80s ballads to modern rock sensibilities. Loveless doesn’t lack for ambition, with cuts like “Forced to Live” heaving serious scrape-picking riffs under harsh vocals, and “Praying for Your Life” operating under crooning delicacy. Too heavy to be classified as shoegaze, but not black enough to be called black metal in any real sense, Loveless seems to be unsure of what kind of listen it wants to be. Highlight “Nothing to be Afraid Of” shows Siren Oath at their most potent, with sole member Bobek Bobkovski layering his vocals, emulating Life on Venus atmospherics. While all of the music is passable, it seems he struggles to write in his vocal range. The heavier cuts feature harsh vocals which sound pained and strained, and many of the clean sections hear him reaching for notes and sounding at odds with the music. “If I Leave You” is a key example, with a verse that sounds curiously out of tone, only to hit a chorus that sounds well executed and ripped right from classic rock. This tonal inconsistency is Loveless’s biggest stumbling block. A more focused direction in either direction, and writing more in his vocal range will strengthen future releases. 2.5/5.0

Killjoy: N00b feeding times with Dolph were a tender bonding experience. He often tied us up, stuck funnels in our mouths, and poured in the foulest concoctions he could find.3 I thought such moments were behind me after recently escaping n00bhood, only for him to press me into Rodeö service on my very first day as a staffer. So it was that I became acquainted with Siren Oath, the solo project of Bobek Bobkovski from Poland. Compared to my prior meals, the quality has dramatically improved but the consistency has not. Loveless predominantly flip-flops between somber post-black (“The Inside,” “Gone Forever”) and depressive goth rock that reminds me a bit of the recent Tribulation album (“If I Leave You,” “Praying for Your Life”). The most aggressive track, “Forced to Live,” dips its toes into sludgy waters. There’s even some saxophone to close out the album, but after test-driving so many styles it feels less novel and more like another piece of spaghetti to throw at the wall. That said, no matter the direction, Bobkovski proves adept at setting the tone through gentle guitar picking, dynamic riffs, and a surprise guitar solo in “Becoming.” With a more focused approach to songwriting, Siren Oath has the potential to land the emotional punch it’s swinging for.4 2.5/5.0

#AlternativeRock #AngryMetalGuySUnsignedBandRodeo #AngryMetalGuySUnsignedBandRodeo2024 #BlackMetal #GhostBrigade #IndependentRelease #LifeOnVenus #Loveless #PolishMetal #PostBlackMetal #PostMetal #SelfRelease #SirenOath #Tribulation

Hach, Ghost Brigade machen einfach perfekte Musik für den Herbst.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkxfeFzaYK4

#GhostBrigade #metal

Endonomos – Endonomos II – Enlightenment Review

By Steel Druhm

There’s something extra satisfying about gambling on a completely unknown act in the promo sump and being handsomely rewarded for the biscuit risk. Austria’s Endonomos describe themselves as “epic doom” and on their sophomore outing, Endonomos II – Enlightenment, they unveil a shockingly mature and intoxicating blend of classic doom, post-metal, and death that’s powerful, emotional, and captivating. Part Solitude Aeturnus, part Fvneral Fvkk, part Ghost Brigade and Darkest Era, Endonomos II marries doom’s past with the present in ways that feel organic and unforced, natural and logical. Cobbling together so many successful doom tropes from across multiple genre variants isn’t easy, but Endonomos forge long songs that flow effortlessly, shifting moods and textures as influences intertwine and coalesce into beautiful sadness and elegant despair. Enlightenment indeed!

You won’t wait long to be impressed either. 9-minute opener “Inversion” is a massive mission statement by Endonomos, delivering everything a doom fancier could ask for and MOAR. Beginning in classic doom style with big riffs and forlorn noodling with hints of prime Katatonia, things shift toward post-rock melodoom akin to Ghost Brigade with chillingly plaintive clean vocals scarring your soul before shifting into booming low register death roars that shake the foundations of burden. The guitars trill funerary lines and weep openly around whatever gravesite your mind manufactures and everything feels so sweetly morose. The song’s half over before you realize it, and you won’t want it to end, such is its depressive allure. Doom perfection. “Atheon Anarkhon” is darker and more dissonant with harsh edges protruding at every turn and death croaks leading the charge until despondent Patrick Walker-esque wailing vocals join the fray. This is more death doom than doom-death and it feels massive and crippling. The last few minutes truly blossom with the achingly forlorn cleans coming forward to spread grief as epic guitar lines borrow from While Heaven Wept to push the song to that next level of awesome.

My first thought upon hearing “Resolve” was that it could be a lost track from Fvneral Fvkk’s masterpiece Carnal Confessions. The way the vocals play off the despairing harmonies is very much the same and the vocals themselves are very reminiscent of the brilliant performance by Simon Schorneck (Cantor Cinedicus). Certain moments remind me of vintage Solitude Aeturnus as well and the guitar work is stunning and beautiful throughout. Ahab’s Daniel Droste provides guest vocals on “Hostile” and the mix of traditional Candlemass / Solitude Aeturnus style doom and modern flavors like Khemmis and Swallow the Sun is expertly realized for another major triumph of the broken heart. All six tracks deliver the rich, anguished goods and depression hasn’t sounded this good to me in a while. At no point do the songs feel bloated or in need of trimming though three of the six push well past 8 minutes. The album’s 48-plus minutes seem to vanish in a blip, making you feel like you lost time somewhere. That’s a sign of high-quality writing.

I’m very taken with the vocals by Lukas Haidinger. He channels a lot of genre heavyweights like Rob Lowe (Solitude Aeturnus), Krum (Darkest Era), Patrick Walker (40 Watt Sun, Warning) and Mikko Kotamäki (Swallow the Sun) and that’s fine company to find oneself in. His ability to sound despondent is a rare gift and his death vocals are top-shelf. He sells the songs like they’re sketchy junkers at a disreputable used car lot and you’ll buy in, with or without complementary undercoating. His bass work is also excellent, providing an ever-present and essential low-end rumble to the proceedings. Philipp Forster and Christoph Steinlechner bring a wealth of doom worship and technical acumen to the album, moving through the years to borrow the best bits from the biggest champions. You hear morose strumming from the Katatonia / Rapture schools sitting next to classic crunching and post-metal/post-rock minimalist wallowing and it all fuses seamlessly. Their riffs are crushing when they should be and the solos are poignant, elegant, and bewitching.

Endonomos find that elusive sweet spot between heavy and melodic and craft a collection of songs that allows them to punch far above their weight. Endonomos II – Enlightenment is easily one of the best doom albums of 2024 and one of the best of the last few years. If 2024 has yet to deliver the doom your masochistic heart longs for, this is it. Don’t miss the Endorama.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 319 kbps mp3
Label: Argonauta
Websites: endonomos.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/endonomos | instagram.com/endonomos
Releases Worldwide: September 27th, 2024

#2024 #40 #ArgonautaRecords #AustrianMetal #DarkestEra #DoomMetal #Endonomos #EndonomosIIEnlightenment #FvneralFvkk #GhostBrigade #Katatonia #Rapture #Review #Reviews #SolitudeAeturnus #SwallowTheSun #Votum

Glare of the Sun – TAL Review

By Carcharodon

We’ve had a long wait for the follow-up to Glare of the Sun’s 2019 sophomore album, Theia. That was a record I liked quite a bit, giving it a place on my first year-end list here at AMG Industries. I admit that I thought, even then, that it was slightly overrated in our review. I will also admit that I can’t remember when I last listened to Theia until revisiting it as a precursor to diving into its successor, TAL. It probably wouldn’t get the same list spot today. However, upon revisiting, it is, as I remembered, a densely layered and starkly beautiful slab of progressive doom, dabbling also in the post-metal realms. Does TAL match the highlights of its predecessor or is it left in the shadows?

From the outset, TAL feels like Theia with all the dials turned up to 11. Where Theia dealt in shades, shifting slowly between huge doom riffs, post-metal melodic, and more, bridging the gap between mid-career Katatonia and Ghost Brigade, TAL is a more in-your-face affair. That’s not to suggest that Glare of the Sun has fundamentally changed its sound but TAL is packed with more immediacy and energy. Delicate instrumental passages remain (the first third of “Amnesty,” for example) but there is more purpose and endeavor to them. It feels like they are guiding you, rather than wandering and searching. There is also a much greater sense of grandeur at play on TAL. It just feels massive, with the heavy, progressive doom riffs still in play. However, they now carry a slightly more abrasive post-hardcore, Cult of Luna-adjacent vibe like the opener “Colossus.” In contrast, other parts border on a grand symphonic feel (the rest of “Amnesty”). The other thing coming through, particularly in the deep, sustained clean vocals on the likes of “Leaving towards Spring” and “Rain” is a strong Prey-era Tiamat feel. This balances some of the album’s mountainous heaviness with a much more introspective silkiness.

Glare of the Sun combines the elements of their sound to great effect on TAL. The back-to-back pairing of “Äon” and “Relikt” exemplifies this, with the former feeling like Clouds meets Slow, while the latter is a masterclass in progressive doom, tinged with that Ghost Brigade sense of despair. “Stonefall” could easily have been penned by Cult of Luna for Somewhere along the Highway, its textures and builds feeling both nuanced and cathartic. What the album does so well is to shift between these influences and genres, while retaining a sense of cohesion. Although closely related, these genres all have their trademarks and tells, which are not easy to mesh, without sacrificing an album’s flow. Glare of the Sun’s five-year absence has led to an album that feels much more confident in its writing, with both “Rain” and “Äon” vying for a place on a songs of the year playlist.

That said, perhaps managing that creative flow led to TAL being longer than it should be. Clocking in just shy of an hour, there is a lot to digest here and, because of its intensity, it feels more tiring to listen to in a single sitting than Theia, despite being slightly shorter. The vinyl version, which won’t include the final two tracks appearing on the CD/digital version, would be almost a quarter of an hour shorter, and much tighter for it. However, you lose the excellent “Horizon,” with “Amnesty” an anticlimactic replacement to close the record. The other track missing from the vinyl, “Storm of Light,” is less of a loss. It’s solid enough but forgettable, not matching the aggression or the subtle melodics of the rest of the material on TAL. Similarly, while “Leaving towards Spring” does nothing wrong, it fails to match the power of “Colossus” or the beauty of “Rain.” TAL’s production is very good, with an airy, balanced mix that gives prominence to Christoph Stopper’s very good vocals (both harsh and clean), without allowing them to eclipse the rest of the band.

I’m very pleased to see Glare of the Sun back and they’ve grown in confidence as songwriters during their absence. The immediacy TAL serves up, in contrast to Theia, is fantastic but it needed to be matched by just a bit more restraint. Cutting the likes of “Storm of Light” and shaving off a few more minutes here and there would have given the record as a whole the same directness and intensity as the individual tracks. Falling just shy of greatness, TAL is a very good record, deserving of your time (and money).

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Lifeforce Records
Websites: gotslfr.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/glareofthesun
Releases Worldwide: September 13th, 2024

#2024 #35 #AustrianMetal #Clouds #CultOfLuna #DoomMetal #GhostBrigade #GlareOfTheSun #Katatonia #LifeforceRecords #PostDoom #PostHardcore #PostMetal #ProgressiveDoom #Review #Reviews #Sep24 #Slow #TAL #Tiamat

Among the songs that taste like cheap booze and cigarette smoke*, I present thee with:
https://song.link/de/i/588000454

#GhostBrigade

*because that was what made up good parts of my weekends when I listened to them the most