The Periapt Of Absence by MOTHER OF GRAVES
I don’t know much about doom metal or death metal. I’m a long-lapsed metal kid who grew up hanging around metal scenes. I had friends who were really into thrash, and I liked certain elements of that. I liked Metallica up until Master of Puppets. I liked Megadeth, well the first couple of albums. I enjoyed Anthrax. I wasn’t big on Slayer. Not sure I quite got it at the time but my pop-veneer brain found it hard to penetrate. I get it now.
I had a bit of a soft spot for Death. l and I remember a friend introducing me to Bathory, which I was fascinated with because I could not make out exactly what the hell was going on.
What I appreciate about this album is that it seems to wear several different thorny crowns all at once. It’s doom metal, but I can hear a death and black metal aesthetic? It seems like it stretches out of those genres with its melodic riffs, dabbling with atonality, its use of a really dark piano where the left hand is really going left and the right hand is really going right on one song, an orchestral swell on another and even a fretless bass on a track further on
It knows how to use time. It’s very patient with itself because it’s building up to something. You’ll get these moments of subtle regard for space and ambience. It has these clean guitar moments recorded that use reverb almost as another instrument; in places, it feels doubled. Then you’ll get stacked harmonic melodic guitars and again these really melodic riffs which feel like the opposite of what you’re supposed to get, but they will drift into any atonality and pull back just a the right time. On top of all this, there is a vocal performance which is solid and confident and really fits the music.
I really enjoyed this. I appreciated the recording and mixing. Guitars are buried enough not to distract but audible enough to make a difference. The drums in places sound like an SR16 drum machine pummeling your frontal lobe, but then they become languid and loose enough to allow quite direct playing to have a groove.
Totally recommended.
It’s #FeatureFriday and our album this week is “The Periapt of Absence,” from @motherofgraves.bsky.social, one of the heaviest bands I’ve come to count among my favorites during my time on Bluesky. This album is a solid wall of potent sounds and growling vocals that hits hard, in a great way. My favorite track from @motherofgraves.bsky.social‘, “The Periapt Of Absence” is “A Scarlet Threnody”, a very melodic and emotional song with a great build into just the right amount of heaviness. Damn fine song, this one!
Vocalist Brandon Howe’s thunderous harsh vocals deliver the poetic and melancholic lyrics with force; screaming against the flood of emotions expressed within them. Guitar solos, drum fills, short piano pieces, every detail of these songs is used wonderfully to make the listener feel the sorrow and angst through the instrumentation alone.
The great mix by non other than Dan Swanö does its part for this storytelling; highlighting certain aspects of a song and directing the audiences attention exactly where it needs to be.
Overall, this album was one of the highlights of 2024, with a dynamic sound that didn’t shy away from having quieter moments. It is engaging, highly emotional and sounds simply fantastic. This is a Metal album that should be required listening and one I highly recommend.
