I first came across these gloomy bastards from France with the charmingly titled This Is Not Supposed To Be Positive, and the their last album five years back Banilieue Triste. Oddly I was reminded and reacquainted with that album very recently when pro wrestling star Malacki Black, he whose entrance music is Amenra, posted it on his socials. And then this turns up.
Loner. Well it doesn’t look like they’ve found a reason to cheer up any. ‘An Ode To Breakdown’ brings this to the fore, a sombre drum heavy intro with a heart-aching guitar sound. The riff that comes in is slow, dense and heavy and then those superb clean, crying vocals. Mere moments and you are sucked down straight into their misery.
As I have noted previously their sound is distinctive and best approached as pre-Viva Emptiness Katatonia blended with Jack Frost (who I’ve just discovered are still active) a hint of more stoner roots and a gothic rock touch to the doomy melodies; Bella Morte, bits of Clan Of Xymox. But these are touchstones merely to orient yourself.
‘Cold & Distant’ has an insistent, driving bassline and a melody to die for. The kind that with the soulful voice just rips you apart. Oh, man this is heart-breaking music, the kind I haven’t heard since Katatonia ripped their own soul out. The riff at its root has that stoner doom feel but the layering of the melody from guitar and vocals is just sublime.
‘Who Wants To Die Old’ is the Cure bassline walking lost and alone through the wasteland of Discouraged Ones before the mist of the heavy doom riff enshrouds you.
This is, like the cover, a long journey at 3.00am; wrecked, emotionally shattered, alone and lost in a world where other people are little more that fading ghosts. It is utterly without hope and where companionship has long since betrayed you. Is a difficult listen. There is no place here that is a comfort. None. But it is also quite beautiful. Hangman’s Chair have a talent for the bleak and the haunted, for combining deeply emotional vocals with the perfect balance of melody and arrangement. On a track like ‘Supreme’ where the voice is matched with simply the guitar, slow chords and simple notes, for the first third it is that talent for making the complex sound simple as the fine bass dances a little to bring the song through.
Perhaps some might find this a little overwhelming. The songs are stylistically similar, the tempo unwavering, but for me the songs themselves, the performances, the widely different weaving of arrangements and sounds makes everything different facets of the same mindscape.
This their sixth full length is for me just masterful. Fans who lament where Katatonia have ended up and don’t mind a slightly more gothic, much more doom turn of musical phrase really need to check them out.
But more importantly remember that Hangman’s Chair very much have their own sound, their own take on misery and I can’t think of anyone better than them at this today.
(9/10 Gizmo)
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