You know, I can’t help wondering what Solitude put in their water cooler as their release rate as a label is phenomenal. Whatever it is, it doesn’t seem to impair their judgement as they have a pretty fine quality threshold. Finland’s Astral Sleep are no exception either I am very pleased to write.
Four tracks weighing in at a smidgen under an hour, this second full length is some serious progressive funeral doom and needs to be approached with equally serious intent.
The Towers opens with that first album Paradise Lost slowed to a crawl style and then it opens out, blossom like as the vocals come.clean. They have the trademark tectonic plate speed and weight, vocals that move easily and well between death and clean styles and with an attraction to heavy guitar and riff melody that brings to mind a nice mix of current Ahab, mid period Katatonia slowed down and twists of acoustic and death metal Opeth. A proggy feel does inhabit this particularly on second song Channel Sleep but it is often balanced by a light touch arrangement or, even, some truly deranged and bizarre vocal contortions that kind of remind you of Bethlehem if just a few prescription drugs were actually working.
The title track is a good example of the basic strengths that Astral Sleep have sound wise: The riffs are, despite the melodic content, full of the grit that keeps metal grounded and the drumming is just about the perfect anchor to keep this mournful craft on course. It’s the kind of dark, faith destroying sound that Procession have taken in a different doom direction. You also have to give special mention to the vocal range here: From a broad range of the death/black styles depending on need, through the same variation in the clean vocals through to full on harmony parts. It is as impressive as their grasp of tempo is: They know how to go from hesitant acoustic plucking to the descent of the sky in riff form and make it feel seamless. The intense, gorgeous atmospheric and relentless fall to oblivion of the last five minutes of Visions is a band gracing us with the full range of their considerable talent and touch.
The curiosity is how close some of this actually comes to the sound of true doom; the opening and closing tracks having long sections where the feel and sound of the riffs is closer to the dark but epic sounds of Procession, as mentioned, but also the likes of early Doomshine, Spiritus Mortiis and Griftegarde. This’ll get me drummed out of the true doom society but maybe that final wall is slowly crumbling…?
Bad points? Hardly anythng, and nothing to prevent purchasing. They All Await Me When I Break The Shackles Of The Flesh might get a little lost for a bit of its length and I certainly think the album should close with that amazing title track, but no show stoppers, nothing but me being picky.
As fine and atmospheric a world of doom as you’ll hear. Sumptuous.
(8/10 Gizmo)
https://www.facebook.com/astralsleepdoom
Leave a Reply