Style: Melodic doom/death metal
Primary Emotions/Themes: Personal struggles, beauty through suffering
Thoughts: "I don't know how you feel about longer songs, but this one is worth every second of it's runtime," ~ a conversation I had with a friend recently regarding the first song off of Air Not Meant For Us - Harbingers.
I hesitated on this album so many times. I had it in my cart at least twenty times with the initial pressing, only to let is slide away. I don't know why I hesitated so much. Maybe it's because of the genre. A lot of times I will really enjoy melodic doom/death only to burn out on the album quickly. Maybe it's because I spend to much time debating if things are worth entering into my collection these days - especially newer albums. Maybe I was just dumb.
Whatever the reason, I missed the initial pressing. As soon as I saw "sold out" I knew that it was a mistake. Sometimes you hesitate so much that when its gone I feel that pit in my stomach, that's what happened here. I knew that if I had another chance I had to jump on it, and I did. A small pressing came up recently and I picked up a copy without hesitation - and now I'm sitting here listening to the immense opener that is Harbingers.
Ten minutes and forty one seconds, that is the length of this opening track. That's a hell of an ask to start off an album. Not only a ten plus minute song, but the longest song on the album on top of that. The first time I heard it I was skeptical that it was as good as I remembered it. It's happened a thousand times before: I hear a track and think it's crazy good. I go nuts and go back to listen again... then I'm left wondering if I'm hearing the same song. What was it that I liked so much before?
That did not happen on the second listen here, or the third, or the fifteenth. This song is actually that good. It mixes brooding slow riffs with d e e p yet discernable growls that set an absolutely immense atmosphere. Let me go off on a slight aside here - I often believe that words like immense or massive are overused when it comes to describing music. I try to use it sparingly, and I use it with great intention here. Harbingers is immense, it is massive. It feels like it is larger than it should. It feels it's a song that is larger than life. It is fully deserving of these words.
That aside over, where the band truly separates itself though is their keyboards. The song starts off with a strong orchestration on top of the incredibly thick opening riff. This only gets better as the band swells into this melodic behemoth that slowly crushes me under its massive weight.
The band demonstrates their ability to write dynamic music when they pull back the massive riffs, the colossal arrangements and menacing vocals. The best parts of this song - and album - come in the quiet moments, the time in-between the behemoth like glaciers. It's in these parts that the piano takes center stage with just a touch of reverb. The melodies played in these moments have a tinge of nostalgia to them... nostalgia for something I've never experienced before - yet long to have.
The rest of the album follows much of the same pattern as Harbingers, though the song writing never quite reaches the heights of the opener. It's crazy how strong this album is. The atmosphere is so peaceful yet menacing at the same time. The musicianship is slow but direct and deliberate in its approach. The melodies are incredibly compelling, yet never overbearing. Everything here is done with the utmost intent and precision - it's as close to perfection as this genre can get.
Written January 2nd 2024
No comments:
Post a Comment