Skip to main content

Stabat Mater

Stabat Mater
Northern Heritage – 2009 


Heavier and darker than his other projects, Stabat Mater is Mikko diving into the desolate lands of funeral doom. The album kicks off with crushing chuggs, which evolve into incredibly dirty sludge riffs. The production is very lofi, giving the guitars that beautiful crunch, and giving power to the deep, rythmic bellowing of the lower strings. Any attempts at melody are beaten by the overbearing chuggs, and when all hope seems lost, synths come into play.

Synths are notoriously hard to get right in metal, as often cheapening the entire sound for just a couple of seconds is enough to sour an album. Genres such as funeral doom are more forgiving, and Mikko allows himself some electronic experimentation, which ends up being a great addition to the personality of the album. Long, droning, high-pitched synth notes give breathing space and a distant glimmer of hope. It's actually nice to hear the guitars and synths to play off of each other from time to time, almost like two musicians jamming to create the soundtrack of a murder victim's funeral. Thanks in part to the low tempo, the riffs have lots of empty space waiting to be filled by keyboard wails and unclean solos.

The bass was notable during this album, coming out of the mix as a separate instrument – while it did have a supporting rôle, it accomplished it in ways that many bass players don't, with more than just root notes on 4ths. Even outside of the rare fills, there was enough to keep my attention for most of my second listen. A quick mention goes to the opera samples, accompanied by a menacing guitar background, the latter of which was subtly written and effective as a mood-setter.




Giuseppe Fitzsimmons
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Five the Hierophant – Over Phlegeton

Five the Hierophant – Over Phlegeton Dark Essence Records – 2017 There's a rare breed of album which instantly becomes a cult classic, and I can confidently say Over Phlegeton is one of them. Experimental, weird, bizarre, none of these words come close to describing just how extraordinary and interesting this record is. If I had to draw parallels with another band, I'd say it's a heavier, more mature version of Mamaleek, with many similar elements such as the ethnic percussions or non-traditional scales, but with a much darker visage and more detailed composition. There have been incredible avant-garde metal albums using unconventional instruments, but none have been so tactfully used as the saxophone is on Over Phlegeton. Played as a full instrument and not a token nod to some jazzy experimentation, Five the Hierophant explore the extremeties of what the sax can do – from screaming leads floating above the guitars to wailing voices in the wind, passing by hear...
Post a Comment
Read more

Phrenelith – Desolate Endscape

Phrenelith Desolate Endscape – 2017 Remember when the Internet went crazy for Pissgrave – Suicide Euphoria (Profound Lore Records) back in 2015 ? It's time for a new riot straight from the abyss, and the demon's name is Phrenelith. Born in 2013 in Copenhagen, Phrenelith started their career out with a split with Spectral Voice (Iron Bonehead, 2016), followed shortly by an EP (Chimaerian Offspring – Extremely Rotten Productions, 2017) and a masterpiece of an album, Desolate Endscape (Dark Descent Records, 2017). Desolate Endscape is the kind of album that reminds me why I like death metal – it's inherently primal , evil and intimidating. This record is a massive slab of death metal, dense and heavy and being thrown at your face. The fact that there's zero flourish or unnecessary technicality brings Phrenelith to the forefront of the cavemanesque caverncore scene that's been simmering for the past decade. The entire album drips with ichor, and while ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Kataplexia – The Rise of the Unknown

Kataplexia – The Rise of the Unknown January 2019 – Rotten Music Kataplexia is Finland's best Indonesian brutal death metal band. You read that right, Indonesian is now a valid qualifier for brutal death metal. For those unaware, I explored and wrote about the Southeast Asian brutal death metal scene two years ago, discovering a gigantic scene with an uncharacteristic public acceptance. One of the members of Jasad began a side-project, Kaluman, which is the definition of high-quality Southeast Asian brutal death metal. A couple seconds into Kataplexia's latest, I expected to see Rottervore or Extreme Souls as their label, as every element pointed towards Indonesian origins – the tone, production, vocals, riffs and even album art all felt like Ferli Suferli (Jasad, Kaluman) was behind the project, yet Helsinki is listed as their base of operations. Admittedly, there's only so much one can actually say about the music without endless comparisons. A modern ...
Post a Comment
Read more