ATRIARCH - An Unending Pathway

November 3, 2014, 9 years ago

(Relapse Records)

Greg Pratt

Rating: 7.5

review black death atriarch

ATRIARCH - An Unending Pathway

Man, takes just a few minutes into the first cut here, "Entropy," to make ya realize that the members of Portland's Atriarch, like anyone who is good, has spent more than their fair share of time obsessing over Neurosis' Enemy Of The Sun album, the mood oppressive and slow, sludgey and thoughtful. But there's also something else entirely putting these guys out of the realm of the NeurIsis clones (just in case you haven't heard that term yet this year, there you go), and into the realm of dark, goth-y, depressing deathrock, bands like Fields Of The Nephilim popping to mind during weird non-metal moments in tunes like the awesome "Collapse" and, you know, that's refreshing in metal. Like their first two albums, the band pulls it off perfectly. It's a nice mix, and it places Atriarch well out of Neurosis land, and away from the blackened urban-decay world of Ludicra, where you just keep thinking they'll end up, and into a whole new, unique, place all together. Then some songs plow with near-grind intensity, like "Bereavement," while "Rot" sounds like the mighty goth-doom-rock of Mindrot (not just the name making me say that, I think) and "Revenant" just dooms hard. "Allfather"'s huge, epic build shows what this band is capable of and is perhaps their most moving moment so far as a band. So, definitely captivating, fairly groundbreaking, another step in the right direction, and absolutely no fun to listen to (as I sit here on a Friday night listening to this and drinking a beer called Black Death, I must wonder where things have gone so wrong). But fun was never the point, was it?



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