Lost, found, descending the dark and then relief, stability and composure – this is the conceptual theme for this second album by Spanish metal band Thyrant.
The band don’t claim to represent any particular genre. My first thoughts when I heard the opening track were that it’s creepy and atmospheric. Sophisticated drumming matches tightly controlled heavy riffage. The vocals and indeed aura are that of black metal if we’re concerned about that but wait … there’s a clean harmony for a chorus. It’s not that moaning pagan style but a cleaner progressive style harmony. This eclectic track, called “Face the Thyrant” by the way, then takes a melodically deathly turn. From black metal swamps to progressive emotion to Opeth … now that’s what I call putting your cards on the table. The air becomes darker and more growly, and that’s how we finish this track. It’s like having your breakfast, lunch and dinner all on one plate, but what holds it together are the tightness of the musicianship and the clarity of progression. My mind needed straightening out a bit, and Thyrant come up with the answer in “Dunes of Desolation” with its rampant and exciting progression. The vocalist adds his fiery growls once more. It’s dark, heavy and vibrant with motion. Thyrant show they know how to manage tempo, as the song transforms from dinginess to frenetic but controlled assault. Strange to say but this particular piece reminds me a lot of everyone’s favourite Vedic metal band Rudra. There’s no suggestion of anything spiritual about the theme as you would have with Rudra but Thyrant are similarly creating and depicting their world here, and doing it vividly.
Within the album there are four chapters representing different stages. The first is “Shipwreck”. It is a sombre, melancholic acoustic piece. It’s beautifully played and presents yet another vista from this evidently versatile band. “Black Oceans” follows with a driving Katatonian progression. I was half expecting Jonas Renske to kick in, but predictably this doesn’t happen. Instead a darker and heavier turn is taken and we are plunged into a deathly chasm where we might find Dark Fortress suffering alongside them. The minimalist yet ever atmospheric ending is testimony to Thyrant’s impressive attention to detail. Appropriately, the second chapter is a gloomy piece called “Hopeless”. By contrast, “Ephemeral Lighthouse” starts with an explosion before morphing into a mellower metal passage. The dark clouds return. The light/dark structures strongly remind me of the “Blackwater Park” era of Opeth. Forward it drives along a snaky technical pathway, interspersed with layers of reflective, progressive metal style interludes. “Ephemeral Lighthouse” has the feel of an epic developing story. The third chapter “Descent” has more weight than its predecessors. The acoustic element is there and triggers the mood, but this time it is superimposed by crashing sounds. The fourth and final chapter “Katabasis” is a 10-minute piece. This band is one of surprises. The initial mood is that of a lazy, sunny day. The clean chorus reflects the dreamy atmosphere. Heavy tones impose themselves and this piece progresses darkly and mysteriously. A gut-wrenching scream precedes slow, growly progression. Ordinarily I am sceptical of the combination of clean vocals and growls in this kind of muddy atmosphere, but here it’s as if the clean vocals are speaking from above. Moreover, the song is not dominated by the fusion of techniques, but has an organic quality as it moves passage by passage through a series of dark and meaty sections of evolution. Descending into depths, the drum pounds and the guitar rings before closing out delicately and suggestively. It’s easy to sum up “Katabasis”, both the track and the album, in one word: atmospheric.
I’d been struggling to find time to listen to this album, but my word am I glad that I did. It’s perhaps cheesy to say so but this is a journey. It’s to Thyrant’s great credit that they manage to create so many different atmospheres with such an expanse of sounds, and fuse them in such an interesting and engaging way. The musicianship of top quality. This impressive and thoughtful work tells me that here is a band to look out for.
(9/10 Andrew Doherty)
Leave a Reply