by Oliver on February 17, 2024 in Album
Theophonos not only treats himself to a profile picture, no, he has it with him Ashes in the Huron River also recorded the album that promises of Nightmare Visions redeems and the disconnection from the entity as Serpent Column justified.
In ten songs that flow seamlessly into each other, James Hamzey does a lot of things very similarly, but almost everything is a step better than on his debut album below Theophonosbanner last year, which now, looking back, feels even more like a kind of warm-up exercise.
Although poses Ashes in the Huron River the one with Serpent Column Strictly speaking never distracts from the patented, dissonant-aggressive, angry-misanthropic madness at the interface between black metal and mathcore, but the chaos (primarily dominant in the opening phase of the record) in a dynamic dosage ultimately leads to an astonishing grip, at times downright simplistic Primitivism – especially in the second half of this second work.
After the clearly sparkling guitars in the title track create a somewhere dreamy, swaying melody in the blackness, it falls Theophonos there with comparatively pig-rock features into a maelstrom beyond Throttle ceiling. Although also, um Empty Gardens all the more exciting, but if you’ve ever had an interest in how the American’s music might sound tailored to crisp highways, there’s something that makes your neck muscles nod Still You Haunt Me probably an answer to that before As Long as Forever only that Jacqueline-moment of the record, but then prefers to follow a motif with jamming repetition as the end credits to an acoustic Red Herring twist.
„Named in honor of the local woods and riverlands that continue to inspire the studio project.” explained Theophonos the title of the record and goes on to explain the background: “This record is an account of a life spent in the rotten heartlands of neoliberal capitalism and a tribute to the vibrant underground music cultures that thrived before the second half of the last decade.“
More accurate: “Primary musical influences include Death Grips’ “Jenny Death” (which the record homages in its gradient-like structure, its centerpiece “Still You Haunt Me” even acting as a reimagined “On GP”), the downtuned hyperaggressions of Morbid Angel’s “Gateways to Annihilation”, and the cinematic, raw intimacies of Pelican’s “The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw.” – which, by the way, can only be partially understood from the entertaining 40 minutes of the album.
Other self-analyses, however, sound more conclusive: “Expanding on the directness of “Nightmare Visions”, “Ashes” is grander in scope, and is internally regarded as a more focused analogue to 2019’s “Mirror in Darkness”. Hafsteinn Viðar Ársælsson’s dark and intricate illustrations once again accompany the music with striking depictions of abandoned landscapes, arranged to evoke a sense of catastrophe and unwilling transformation.“
Because actually takes Ashes in the Huron River picks up the threads in this respect and not only spins them into new starting points beyond Serpent Column further, but also condenses them in their own territory and delivers some of the strongest scenes using Hamzey’s typical, technically virtuosic signatures (and once again supported by the congenial Maya Chun).
The sound of the ascetic production is raw and harsh, keift The Built World drools away with a lo-fi aesthetic and alternates between the thrashing galloping accelerator and a speed-torpedoing intricacy, hurling vicious riffs like a filthy dervish of a demon in black’n’roll gear. In No Reprieve the psychotic hustle and bustle allows itself a finale with a more evocative rise, which culminates in an ascetic metalcore stoicism, and Willing Power shifts his theme until the guitar breaks out into a shot solo, each element seems to want to overtake itself in a precise methodology as if madly and at some point the straight direction grooves in a feverish trance. Grid of Sorrows even shows a superb third third with a guitar that etches into the white noise like the ugly face of a surf combo An Elegy rotates around an improvised base, sends the drums on expeditions and ultimately attacks as a desperate Sturm und Drang ecstasy.
The impression that Theophonos reaches its limits in this manifestation, does not necessarily arise even in such outstanding moments, and the zenith of Serpent Column unrivaled for now. The assessment that Hamzey will realize any optimization potential for his no longer current, new playground here at the latest – a perceived initial spark! – is still available, but is practically indispensable.
Ashes in the Huron River von THEOPHONOS
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