Solar Paroxysm
by Mare Cognitum

From Mercury 04/08/2021 16:34 | #268335

(Great atmospheric Black Metal album with some really gorgeous soaring melodic parts and crushing and intense blast beat-heavy bits and a nice swirling pool of sound that makes for a nice place to take a little 56 minute swim in when you're in the mood for some black metal goodness.)

The Yoth Iria album from earlier this year opened me up to more black metal. I since have been listening to a smattering of black metal. I find myself drawn to the sounds and emotions quite strongly. I saw that this album is getting a lot of love in many circles. I gave ait a few listens and I love it.

The opener "Antaresian" is full of some truly killer riffs! Also a couple solos which are excellent and a general soaring, emotionally touching atmosphere that blows me away and heaps of cool tonal shifts to keep the entire piece moving at a breakneck pace without ever being overwhelming or jarring. Right from the jump with this epic opener I was on board and glued to the rest of this record.

The album is 56 minutes, 5 tracks, each track is 10-12 minutes long consistently having soaring riffs and, at times, insane pummeling blast beats, lots of tasty tremolo guitar, the vocals are screaming and seem to be buried, y'know lots of great black metal sounds. Even in my limited experience with the genre I can hear this isn't boundary-pushing, yet these tracks do have a cool and vibrant power. Despite the albums relatively long run-time (don't forget who is writing that, you know I like my albums like I like my hair cut, short) I find myself getting fully sucked into the atmosphere and there is yet enough variety of mood and sound that I don't feel like I'm listening to one long and monotonous dirge.

Track 2 "Frozen Star Divinization" is a standout, featuring some much heavier and more tangible brute strength with a few bits moving away from the atmospheric into a vicious pummeling arena which is refreshing. Track 3, "Terra Requiem" on the other hand throws us back into the clouds of the atmospheric and almost mournful with a particular instrumental bit in the middle that may moisten your average listener's eye. The melodic, soulful and beautiful guitar tone here is excellent.

The yo-yo between more forest-y, mysterious black metal vibey pieces to the more grounded and tangible and heavier pieces continues with track 4 "Luminous Acretion" which features some of the more clear examples of insane and stamina-testing drum attacks and some classic metal soloing and this building intensity as well as a building melodic almost choral sounding tone. This is a brilliant song and features some of the more abrupt and artful and nearly-but-not-quite proggy change ups in sound and tempo and this song is maybe the most essential or most representative of what this album has to offer. So, not that anyone reading this is likely to do this, but if you wanted to hear one song and not the whole album as a sampler of what this album has to offer, listen to "Luminous Acretion".

And it would be weird to make somewhat lengthy mention of the first 4 songs and then just leave with no word on track 5. The final track "Ataraxia Tunnels" starts with some of the most proto-typical tremolo guitar and keeps that the whole way through or most of it and builds from there. Its another great Atmospheric Black Metal epic, spanning 12 and a half minutes, several phases and changes, and the track seems to get more and more loud and intense as it continues until by about 7 minutes in the intensity is almost unbearable ... in a good way. At the end the song opens up with some beautiful guitar melodies and then the song and album ends.

Overall, yes I REALLY like this. Still working out/trying to decide if its my fave BM album of the year (lol there are only 2 in contention as of this date, April 8, 2021) but whether it is or isn't, it certainly is one of my fave metal albums of any subgenre and it was a beautiful and inspiring listen.