Friday, May 12, 2017

Loss : "Horizonless"








So everything you liked about "Despond" is present, but the production is much fuller and shows they have gone the extra mile to expand their sound.
 I am going be partial to this band because they got me into funeral doom. I came across them when they were opening for Agalloch. The guttural gurgle of vocals is still there though more vocal colors have been added. The more scathing higher pitched black metal like snarl that explodes out of " the Joy of All Who Sorrow". gives a different feel while the guitar play it closer to what is familiar from this band.The differences are some of the uglier sonics in the chords progressions where the first album found the guitar in a more mourning melodic longing, The first song even builds into something more like black metal. The mood is closer to "Despond" on "All Grows on Tears". The melodies weep and the more metallic elements that have dialed up are not as in your face. It might be the production of Billy Anderson that  continues to give even these more familiar moments a greater grandiosity. It accelerates in a more black metal picked section before the guitar trades places with the drums as the double bass speed up beneath the rest of the song.

Their more trademark sound of a lingering clean guitar melody resurfaces in a more dynamic fashion of "Naught" which still gives me everything I want from this band. The vocals go into a higher nastier rasp.  Things get darker and take on a more elegant creepiness on "the End Steps Forth" with a pipe organ following a piano intro. The vocal have a more of a breathy chant than growl here. This song serves as almost more of an intro to the lush title track that only flirts with the more delicate guitar before beginning to build around the two minute mark. Toward the end of the song clean vocals come in they are a low goth like baritone. "Banishment" is like a murky death metal interlude with a sample running through it as the growls roar out from what feels like an angrier place.

"Death is All" goes into the more introspective melancholy and finds them locked into the sound they now own. This one builds into a more sonic heaviness with a touches of black metal ugliness counter balance by more melodic guitar textures. The lower goth like vocals also make another appearance at the climax of this song. This album is a triumph by the band and everything I can want out of this brand of doom. It gets a 10 no questions asked. Released May 19th on Profound Lore.



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