Wow... just... wow. I really don't know how to describe the music that's hitting my ears right now, other than "wow." It's been a long ass time since I heard something that made me utter the words "gawd dayum" when listening to it. The first track off Trisagion, Chasmal Fires did just that.
I really hesitate to call these compositions on the album songs... the shortest one is 13 minutes long. These are more like books put into audio form. The opening track is so long, it's split into two sides of the first LP. That is much more than a song... that's an experience.
The way that these tracks are composed is something else. It's been years since I've heard an album that has songs this long that sound this cohesive. Let's go back to Chasmal Fires for a minute here to look at how this works.
The song starts out as a dungeon synth piece for the first few minutes. During this time slowly building ambience is interrupted by simple melodies. These melodies are going to be setting the foundation for the leitmotifs for the rest of the song. As the metal comes in the pace slowly picks up until a blistering climax. During the crescendo, most if not all the melodies that were introduced in the start of the song come back. They are morphed and interchanged between instruments, but they are there... and it is otherworldly how well everything comes together.
While the rest of the album did not have that "holy shit this is amazing" factor that Chasmal Fires did, to say that they are bad songs is far from the truth. They are at worst competent, and at best really damn good. They all play around with different melodies and atmospheres much like the opening track did... just not to the same extent nor with the same expertise.
I only found out about Ethereal Shroud this year. I'm really late to the party on this one, but damn, I'm glad I'm here. Phenomenal album.
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