Here’s a little lesson for you in the complex language that is English. The verb “to occult” has nothing to do with magic, but instead means for a light to go from on to off and back again, the reverse as it were of “to flash”, whilst “occultation” is the act of being occulted, and in astronomical terms means when one celestial object moves between two objects and excludes the view of one from the other, such as when the moon eclipses the sun. Who’d have thought that Ave Noctum not only gave you a host of free reviews from the underground metal scene, but also the means to pass your English GSCEs and annoy your friends down the pub with pedantry? However, in this case Occultation with a capital ‘O’ is a three piece metal band hailing from New York, New York, bringing you the faithful reader of this site a new release in the form of ‘Silence in the Ancestral House’.
After the ‘Intro’, resplendent as it is with chimed bells and a creeping menace, the album proper bludgeons forth with ‘The First of the Last’, a doom number that would do Candlemass proud with the heavy slow verses interspersed by faster instrumental time changes, all presided over by clean female vocals redolent of the confident detachment of a young Siouxsie Sioux; a heady mix for sure. ‘Laughter in the Halls of Madness’ follows, and a healthy dose of prog is thrown into the mix, whilst ‘All Hallow’s Fire’ screams of the occult, its slow esoteric build up and lyrics of flame and magic making it a perfect soundtrack to a seventies Italian witchcraft movie.
By not being bound to commercial airplay friendly short tracks, but instead allowing their music to develop and build over songs that are six, seven, or eight minutes long, Occultation never sound hurried or constrained by the need to stick to a formula, instead throwing a host of influences together, numbers like ‘The Dream Tide’ developing slow Iommi-esque riffs into a gallop that would do Iron Maiden proud before melding a King Crimson guitar solo into the whole, the diverse sounds not jarring, but somehow being formed into a coherent single entity.
The band leave their most epic to last with the final two tracks on the album, the two together easily deserving an EP of their own. Again the fertile influence of Candlemass is mined for ‘Forever Hereafter’; if that band had ever considered replacing Robert Lowe by somebody un-bearded, Occultation’s Viveca Butler could easily have stepped up to the mark and reinvigorated that veteran act with her haunting vocals. Closing track ‘Silence in the Ancestral House’ builds on the atmosphere that evolves throughout the whole album, a Gothic element coming to the fore at the start of the track to add a new layer to Occultation’s sound, before the tempo ups into some classic sounding psych and occult rock.
It’s possible that by not having an easily defined and pigeonholed sound Occultation may fall between the cracks of different genres, and that would be a shame as there is a whole load of musicianship on display in this album. Conversely, the band’s diverse sound may appeal across a wide range and bring them success. Who knows? All I know is that it was a pleasure to review this album, and it will be elbowing its way into my all too cramped play lists.
(8/10 Spenny)
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