The collaborators on this, the seventh album by Ephel Duath, have links with Joe Satriani and Necrophagist. On growly atmospheric vocals is Karyn Crisis and there are a couple of guest appearances from Mr Death Metal Erik Rutan, who is the producer. The ambiance is unmistakably set by Davide Tiso. In the style of “The Painter’s Palette” (2003) and its successors, from “Feathers under my Skin” the jazzy and intricate guitar work wanders off and takes us to a familiarly soulless and melancholic world of grey and crumbling buildings. Ms Crisis’s raucous vocals merely add anguish to the bleak scene. It never picks up. That would defeat the object.
In fact the second track “Tracing the Path of Blood” is even more gloomy than the first. The tortured vocals croak, and it’s all like a creeping disease. The drum beats are morose, and the guitar work has that meandering jazz metal quality that defines Ephel Duath. It never rises above the unpleasant. With Ephel Duath it’s important to cast away normal thought processes. It’s all shaped in a certain way. That way points to horror and maybe cacophony, but it’s more a case of technical jazzy experimentation. “Within this Soil” features typically anarchic guitar patterns, rising up imperiously at one point. It doesn’t go anywhere but maybe that’s the point. “Those Gates to Nothing” is more shapeless than ever. The screams sound more desperate and are appropriate to the off-centre level of anarchy. As Ms Crisis screams darkly, the irregular progression continues. It breaks up briefly but nothing will prevent the familiar desultory Ephel Duath guitar pattern from pursuing its weird and meandering course before it runs out. “Hemmed by Light” is quieter and features slower guitar work. Cold and almost funereal, this is like a build-up to post metal. There is now delicacy in the slowly opening pattern. As “Shaped by Darkness” begins with another section of avant-garde, irregular guitar, the singer re-appears to flatten an already downtrodden scene. All I could visualise was a gloomy, grey day. Everything suggests that depths are being plumbed. Yet there are moments in the finery of the guitar work. Ms. Crisis’s monotonous voice matches the scene but there is a despairing passion in it. It’s a mixed tableau but above all it’s grey and moody.
As an artistic work “Hemmed by Light, Shaped by Darkness” successfully creates an image of a dismal and at times ghastly world. The guitar patterns are flowery but unlike the innovative “Pain Necessary to Know” (2005) there’s nothing to cause shock. The movements are irregular but there’s a dreary constancy about it. It’s recognisably Ephel Duath in its artistry but that doesn’t stop it from being a struggle to listen to.
(6/10 Andrew Doherty)
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