That is a lot of title in brackets eh especially for a band of few words. Arctic Sea Survivors are a quartet of Austrian instrumentalists named Survivor I through IV and these six tracks constitute their 2nd full length album, The Longest Dawn is also the final piece of a trilogy begun with 2018’s “ Into the Barren Lands” and continued in the E.P . “The Inuktitut Tape” the following year.
The music explores arctic themes – quite literally with the debut L.P. following an ill- fated historical expedition into a Russian Archipelago named Franz Josef Land. The follow up E.P. was inspired by the lives of Inuit people living in the region.
The (Arctic) circle is closed with “The Longest Dawn” which has as its theme the four survivors joined by a fictional character from the first album as they try and traverse an ever changing landscape which is probably in another realm.
From that you may be able to gather the tone and feel of the music on offer here. We are talking wide, expansive post rock that uses sweeping strokes to paint the alabaster snowscapes. At first glance at the track listing it reads like an Immortal album with the Blashrykh beaten out of it.
“Enter the realm of Pana,” “The Place that never Thaws,” “The Fires of Archangelsk.” I start getting some crabwalking vibes. Whilst there is no corpse paint or big fantasy orange squeezing here there are elements of black metal throughout the album. The atmosphere on tracks like “Solitary Pathways” are very bleak and the guitar line that lies over the big sludgy riffs is as spikey as much of the post black metal that is out there at the moment.
The Arctic Sea Survivors are described as an instrumental band – they do not employ a singer but this album is not entirely without vocals. There are spoken passages on several tracks which narrate the journey of the intrepid folk and give some context to the pictures being painted by the musicians. For me, as a listener, this kept me in the environment of the protagonists rather than drifting off into my own imagination, creating my own worlds in which to experience each track.
So, how do they map out this desolate unforgiving landscape? Well as mentioned before with swathes of post rock riffs and big drums and a little black metal atmosphere. That’s not all folks. There is some big whale blubber on the bones of these tracks too – and it appears to be covered in thick coarse hair as well. The opener “Enter the Realm of Pana” is almost hopeful. The guitars twinkle like sunlight off ice and it feels like the expedition may have some success. The bassline throbs like a heartbeat and the chugs and drums that fill the middle section have a heroic bent – these guys are going to make it just fine.
“The place that never thaws” is tranquil and beautifully bleak. You can imagine the frozen white disappearing into the horizon, the sun glare turning your cheeks red and burning your retina. The music grows and intensifies, representing to me the seemingly never-ending slog across the barren landscape. The drums are so loud that the spoken passage about mighty stones gets muffled and becomes one with the instruments. I can just imagine trying to speak to someone in a blizzard and just catching parts of sentences. The music takes on a more urgent sound and evokes a feeling of helplessness and hope dwindling. The guitar solo erupts like cries for help. “Solitary Pathways” opens like the aftermath of the storm. The trajectory of the group has slowed to a crawl – a big doomy post rock riff is compelling them forward whilst the drummer plays a slow loping marching beat. Here the spoken passage is clearer but fades into the music and I wish for a lyric sheet. What sounds like whale song is obliterated by harsh black metal razors. All becomes bleak and the whiteness takes on the hue of bones bleached by time.
“Novaya Semlya” sits almost centred in the album, like a mythical beast – its title is taken from another Archipelago that sits at the most Eastern part of Europe. In January – mid winter it has zero hours of sunshine and an average temp of –17 degrees C. Brrrrrrr! The track starts brutally with a gigantic sludgy riff that thunders across the ice. Then there is calm, could it be that we are shown the tundra through the eyes of a Barents Sea polar for whom this is breeding and feeding ground rather than a frozen hell? This album has got me researching an area of the world I do not have a Scooby about. Gotta be a good thing hey? The guitars quicken their pace, the drums become more prominent and a new fuzzed out riff takes control before erupting into scratchy post BM that is as salty and raw as the polar bear’s breakfast. It ends in a dreamy proggy calm which leads into “The Fires of Archangelsk”. This track has a waltz like tempo and I can imagine cutting shapes on a frozen sea. A delightful doomy riff takes centre stage for a while and I am left adrift nodding my head lost in its greatness before things return to a more tranquil and light section. This track is all abouts shades, the bleakness and the blackness of this white desert shot through with sunlight.
Journeys end is “The March of the Adivun”. Adivun in Inuit religion is the place beneath where the dead go to be prepared for their journey to the Land of the Moon. So, it looks like our protagonist did not survive his journey – if he in fact survived the first expedition at all. Give it a quick google – it is very interesting. The track conveys this transformative journey as a sad but intriguingly beautiful one. The snare drum adds an urgency to the march of the dead souls whilst a frantic black metal guitar line seems to signify decay and loss.
This album is a trip to a land I have no clue about (well I have a little more now) and is as vibrant in depicting the great north as any documentary. Music like this should paint pictures and Arctic Sea Survivors create a beautiful but terrifying landscape.
(7.5/10 Matt Mason)
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