Seething Beneath Solemnity...

Tethra - Empire of the Void (2020)

With two albums and an EP to their catalog since forming in 2008, the Italian quintet of Tethra has made consistently strong impressions, with the quality of their individual performances and overall crafting resulting in great releases.

Now, with their third album, Tethra stride confidently through an hour's worth of their death/doom metal mixture, working overall atmosphere and individual moments to great effect. Generally speaking, the vocals and drums handle the aggression of the death metal side, while the guitar and bass provide the melancholic doom. But there are also times when the vocals slide into deep wells of longing and regret, or the guitar will burst into raging assault, for example. Throughout the album, the band continually experiments and keeps things from growing predictable or stale, which is a needful concern with both sides of their stylistic heritage.

Whether engaging in slow-paced mood studies (like the title track, for example) or cutting loose with high-action expressiveness, Tethra's work on this album shows the group always focused on making their music come to life. The inclusion of a David Bowie cover (“Space Oddity”) is a surprising touch, but the heavy tenderness the band brings to their treatment of it makes for a memorable twist on the original material. On the whole, it's another strong showing from Tethra, and one that sees them continuing to expand their horizons.

~ Gabriel

For Fans Of; Apothecary, Esogenesi, Illimitable Dolor, Matalobos, Towards Atlantis Lights

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Tethra - Cold Blue Nebula (320 kbps)

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Completion In Consumption...

Black Royal - Firebride (2020)

Riding high off the release of their first LP in 2018, following a single and a pair of EPs, the Finnish group of Black Royal are back to strike while the iron's hot with their second LP. Running right at forty minutes total, the album features nine tracks, blending together a number of styles, but always coming through with a strong sense of the band's character.

Opening with a melancholy, almost dirge-like bit of tenderness in the intro to “Coven”, the band shows an impressive way with understated melodies, before jumping into the hard and sludgy metal that makes up the meat of the LP's music. A chorus of “Please forgive me Satan / For I have not sinned” highlights a warped sense of humor, while an interjection of symphonic strings before the final minute gives an indication of the band's willingness to get weird for the sake of keeping things interesting.

From there, the group keeps things unpredictable but engaging, leavening the hard metal with streaks of moody melodics and psych inclinations put through strange filters. Strong riffs and the self-discipline to leave listeners wanting more serve the band well, and as firmly rooted in metal as the music is, they find ways to keep it up and moving that bring a touch of hard rock energy to the proceedings. Additionally, the riffs tend to be so firmly structured that they lean more into death metal than sludge, though the mix of styles keeps either from being a firm designation.

One of the biggest points of commendation for the band is how much distinct flavor and attitude they give each song (a personal favorite being “All Them Witches”). Though they operate with mostly the same tools from track to track, Black Royal show a high degree of creativity in how they deploy those tools, always incorporating at least a few change-ups to avoid getting bogged down in repetition. At the same time, they keep a recognizable spirit and energy going through all of it, and the momentum through the album is a persistent force.

Though the forty-minute run is likely to leave listeners wishing it had another couple of tracks tagged on, each song on the album is solid, and it makes for a stimulating and energetic showing of the band's capabilities. Check it out if you're looking for some powerful metal that can't be pinned down by easy description.

~ Gabriel

For Fans Of; Criminal, Dead Hand, Deuil, Plaguewielder, Slush

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Black Royal - Pagan Saviour (320 kbps)

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Toads In Trouble...

Goblinsmoker - A Throne in Haze, A World Ablaze (2020)

On their third release (already sold out of physical copies about a month before the actual release date), the UK trio of Goblinsmoker bring about half an hour of stony, sludgy doom to bear in the form of three tracks.

Leading with “Smoked in Darkness”, the band builds up a smoky, tarry atmosphere, rumbling along on bass resonance and slow-beat percussion, occasional growls of ragged vocals penetrating the densely fuzzy haze. Grinding along on a heavy-duty riff, beating away with gradually growing fervor, and ramping up the vocal presence, the song rolls on with heavy momentum, hitting its end with a solid thump.

“Let Them Rot” takes over from there, riding a buzzy guitar line into the body of the song, where it's joined by reinforcing bass and punctuating drums. Fleshing out the riff, the band cruises on from there in low gear, seeming mainly concerned with building up the atmosphere of hazardous heaviness. It works well enough, but the trudging pace, combined with relatively little variation over the course of the ten-minute track, brings things down to more of an endurance test than a good doom wallowing. The kick into active drumming in the last minute or so is a nice change, but it's also too little, too late.

Lastly, “The Forest Mourns” turns up the sludge flavoring with some amped-up feedback, though much of the rest of the approach remains the same. Tempo, tuning, rhythms, and instrumental interactions stick with the settings of the previous songs (or close enough that it's effectively the same), which may come as a treat to those who are fully in-line with things by this point, but will likely be something of a let-down to the others who've stuck it out. The band does show a good grasp of the moodiness and vibes that they want to put across, so here's hoping that they bring in a bit more range for whenever their first full-length emerges.

~ Gabriel

For Fans Of; Flood Peak, Lowered, The Sleer, Trees, Tons

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