Saturday, March 03, 2018

Wonders and Woes...

Towards Atlantis Lights - Dust of Aeons (2018)


Bringing together members from an assortment of bands, including Void of Silence and Pantheist, the group of Towards Atlantis Lights make their debut with this album and its four tracks, and sound truly colossal in doing so. Hell, the opening track (“The Bunker of Life”) is half an hour long, which makes for a pretty big first impression, you know?
Naturally, the group takes its time building things up over that duration, but it's not long before the gothic guidance comes to the fore, with monastic vocal drones and resonance to put you in mind of a massive pipe organ rising up from the depths of doom. Growls and sprawling guitar riffs join the affair, packing on the heaviness and adding some welcome complexity to the proceedings. Ride along with the slow-moving power, don't spend too much time breaking down the pieces, and you're in for a doom experience to soak through your ears and into your bones.
Once they clear that monster of an opener, it's on to the second half of the album, spread out over three tracks. First of those is “Babylon's Hanging Gardens”, which concentrates the vibes from the first thirty minutes into something with a beat to which you can (slowly) head-bang. “Alexandria's Library” moves from beat to tone studies, spilling out its bass-lines at the speed of tar, coaxing out a mournful vocal treatment to give you goosebumps, and drifting out on a delicate twist of piano. That leads nicely into the final track, “Greeting Mausolus' Tomb”, with its trembling string-pluckings and clear-voiced dedication, before the swarming heat of the deeper textures take over and death holds sway.
It's quite an experience, and while it will probably put off those with a need for speed, the listeners seeking some powerful doom metal should dig it, while the funeral doom fans get chills. Set to drop on March 6th through Transcending Obscurity Records, this is one to get your ears around as soon as you can, as it'll take quite a while to fully digest.
~ Gabriel

For Fans Of; Bell Witch, Jesu, Ksyatriya, Thergothon, Ufomammut




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