Black Metal History Month - Downfall of Gaia :"Silhouettes Of Disgust"

 

This is the second time one of their albums has fallen into my in-box on this blackest of months. The German band's 2019 album also made it's appearance here during this time. I enjoyed that release and welcomed a black metal band who atmospheric with post-rock leanings but not riding Deafheaven's band wagon. The opening track to this album is more black metal in it's feeling than what I remember of the 2019 album. It is both darker and more aggressive. The soaring atmosphere still lingers, but not enough from stopping this raging storm of sound they are creating here. The world is a darker and angrier place so this is fitting. By the second song " the Whir of  Flies" finds the same conforming more closely to the expectations of black metal with a crusty edge of it. Not as impressive as what they opened with but still more original than most bands in the genre today.

They move in a more dynamic direction with the arrangement for "When Bloodsprings Become Rivers" There are passages where the thrashing speed they attack the songs with recalls their more d-beat driven past. They darker more melodic turn that leads into "Bodies as Driftwood" has a sexy groove like drive before the blast beats which I wish they would have indulged me in longer , but that is only one color they paint the black metal machine with. They ebb back down into this beat , what take it in a another direction. This kind of songwriting can not be praised enough and more bands need to aspire to it. The drummer is fucking incredible.  "Eyes to the Burning Skies" starts off in an atmospheric haze that female vocals call out from to create  the illusion of introspection before blasting off with renewed fury.

There is an interesting syncopation to the onset of "Final Vows" that makes me wish more black metal bands would take these kinds of risks rather than just hiding behind the safety of blast bears. When they do reengage the more common place tropes of the black metal sound it is given a fresh coat of malice. There is a dark shimmer to "Unredeemable" that owes more to Weakling than Deafheaven. The melodic guitar parts add a great deal of depth. The last song takes a minute to really build the momentum to get started. After listening to the song four times it finally sunk it that it goes from ambiance to blasting, the problem being with the stream I was listening to that it came full circle with the first song and the blasting from that one ran together. I will round this one up to a 9.5, it's one of the best black metal albums I have heard this year, which even though we are only two months into the year, this album comes out in March I have dove way ahead of the game when it comes to black metal this month. you like forward thinking black metal with plenty of dark disgust this album is for you.Drops the 17th of March on METAL BLADE.