Evoken: Hynagogia (2018)

First of all, I need to plan better when I decide to listen to albums to prepare a review.  Funeral doom metal is not terribly conducive to listening to while exercising.  The slow pace just does not really lend itself to increasing your heart rate.  That was exactly what I was thinking as I was listening to this while jogging down the county road with Reaper and Jinx (two of my dogs) by my side.

Now, I covered a release by Evoken fairly recently, so I do not need to do much introduction here.  This is the band's sixth full-length album and finds the band making some changes and evolving.  The first thing to note is that the band has quickened their pace overall.  Previous albums have been relentlessly slow and plodding, as is typical of a funeral doom metal band.  This one finds the band, comparatively speaking, with a spring in their step.  I know, odd wording considering how bleak and desolate this album comes across.  But the album reminds me more of something like My Dying Bride's The Angel and the Dark River than their previous releases.  At times, they really kick things into gear, such as the rumbling riffs about two-thirds into "Valorous Consternation".  Drummer Vince Verkay is quite busy behind the kit throughout the album and is one of the highlights of the entire thing.

It is not just the tempo that has changed on this album though.  Evoken also incorporates some piano and strings into their music this time through.  The additional instrumentation complements the somber tone of the album quite well and truly shine through in a number of places.  It is this change in instrumentation that also reminds me of the aforementioned My Dying Bride album.  At times, the strings are the main attraction and the vocals are delivered in a hypnotic baritone.  These moments have an almost gothic-doom metal sound, like something on a Draconian or The Sins of Thy Beloved album. 

I would be remiss if I did not discuss the story line of the album.  This is a concept piece that tells the story of a wounded soldier dying in the trenches during World War I.  He is writing his final words as he is slowly succumbing to his injuries and his soul eventually haunts the pages that he has written in vengeance for dying so horribly.  It is an incredibly dark subject matter that fits the tone of the music quite well.

This is an album that is still slowly growing on me.  It is a little bit different than I expected, mostly due to the faster pace.  But it is still compelling and mournful and beautiful all at the same time.  It is an incredible album.  I just have not decided if it is better than Atra Mors yet.

Evoken: Promo 2002 (2002)

Every few months or so I dive back into my funeral doom obsession, which was initially kick-started by Ahab and now is primarily driven by groups like Bell Witch and Lycus.  It is not an easy genre to really get into.  The songs are not catchy at all and they are often incredibly long.  And with how slow and drawn-out the albums are, it definitely does not make good driving music.  But nevertheless, I love funeral doom.  And I have been recently trying to add more albums to my collection.

Which brings me to this one, the promo released by Evoken, one of the bigger names in funeral doom metal and a band that I first experienced during the infancy of my funeral doom obsession.  This promo was recently reissued on cassette to allow for a wider audience to acquire it and it is damn impressive.  Two of the songs appear on the Antithesis of Light album released a couple years later, the rest do not appear anywhere else in the band's catalog that I can see.

The music of Evoken is typically more somber and atmospheric even than some other funeral doom metal bands.  This release opens up with a monolithic instrumental track that sets the dark mood for the rest of the album.  Featuring heavy, distorted guitar riffs in the background of cleaner chord progressions, it provides a solid introduction to what is to come.  My favorite track on the album is "The Last of Vitality".  About midway through, that song kicks into a faster (though still very slow) rumbling riff with some damn impressive drumwork.  After a minute or so of that, it descends into more dissonant chord progressions and some spoken-word vocals, though the drums are still playing more of a faster-paced fill.  Atmosphere is everything for a band in this genre and the atmosphere of that song is as tortured and pained as it gets.  And the music is almost beautiful in the melodic sections of the utterly spine-chilling "Antithesis of Light".

Evoken is always one of the bands I recommend to those looking into funeral doom (Ahab is usually the other one).  They are a little more accessible than some other bands with some truly pretty sonicscapes at times and dark and somber at others.  They are still not an easy band to get into, but a little moreso than a group like Bell Witch.  This would be a pretty good starting point for the band.

Best Album Art of the Year

This is an utterly incredible album cover.  The hopelessness and despair that it elicits are incredibly powerful.

Top 40 Metal Albums of 2012: 10-1

10.  RUMPELSTILTSKIN GRINDER: GHOSTMAKER
The best pure thrash metal album this year came from a very unexpected source.  Rumpelstiltskin Grinder had previously been kind of an anomaly in the wave of retro thrash metal bands, a band with a strong sense of humor and some non-thrash metal elements thrown in for good measure.  Their sound really came together on this release.  It is a shame so few people have been willing to give them a shot because they really deserve it with this one.

9.  AURA NOIR: OUT TO DIE
Australia has mostly become known for this style of blackened thrash metal, so it came as a bit of a shock to hear a terrific blackened thrash metal album from Norway.  This is an incredibly grimy and dirty sound that kicks ass and takes names.  It is short and raw and a wild ride.

8.  EVOKEN: ATRA MORS
This release shows just how morose and despairing funeral doom metal can get.  Ahab remains my favorite funeral doom metal band, but this release may be one of my favorite albums from the subgenre, joining prior Ahab material and the Catacombs album.  This album is utterly hopeless with an incredible sense of despair hanging over the entire album.

7.  HOODED MENACE: EFFIGIES OF EVIL
The best pure doom metal album this year, Hooded Menace's lyrics mostly deal in horror themes.  There is definitely a market for this style and lyrical theme.  Hooded Menace craft extremely impressive traditional-styled doom metal with infectious riffs and incredibly catchy songs.  The vocals may be death metal-styled but the music is pure doom.

6.  GOATWHORE: BLOOD FOR THE MASTER
I can always count on Goatwhore to release an album of purely chaotic and menacing black/thrash/death/extreme metal.  They have not disappointed me yet.  Perhaps the most impressive thing about Goatwhore though is that the band continually gets better.  Each time they release a new album, it is the best album they have ever done.  That continues with this release.  This is the best Goatwhore album ever.  Though that will only last until the next one if history is any indication.

5.  MORTALICUM: THE ENDTIME PROPHECY
Every year it seems like a traditional metal album comes out of nowhere to completely shock me and make it very high on my end of the year countdown.  This is not the only one this year, but it is perhaps the most shocking.  This one was sent to me to review from Metal on Metal Records and I have not been able to stop listening to it since.

4.  GOJIRA: L'ENFANT SAUVAGE
I once said that Gojira released one of the heaviest songs of all time.  Now they have released one of the heaviest albums.  The French band continually puts out ridiculously heavy material.  This is my favorite album that Gojira have released so far and it came damn close to taking the top album of the year.  The band is almost unclassifiable, but that is not important when the music is this good.

3.  ATARAXY: REVELATIONS OF THE ETHEREAL
I have said it before in this list, 2012 was a great year for death metal.  Ataraxy is a Spanish death metal band that has released an utterly terrific raw and grimy album.  Not bad for a debut album.  I owe my knowledge of this band to Full Metal Attorney.

2.  NEPHELIUM: COILS OF ENTROPY
Almost everything I said about Ataraxy could be said about Nephelium, except that they are from the United Arab Emirates originally before relocating to Canada.  This is a death metal album on par with just about any other death metal album of the last several years.  There is just something about this release that grabs the listener and refuses to let go.  It is an incredibly raw and brutal death metal album that is fresh and exciting.  2012 was a great year for death metal and Nephelium is the biggest reason why.

1.  CHRISTIAN MISTRESS: POSSESSION
Here it is, the best metal album of 2012 and this is definitely from an unusual place.  As I said with Mortalicum, every year it seems like a traditional metal album comes out of nowhere and blows me away.  Christian Mistress have released the best metal album of the year.  Their sound can be traced back to the NWOBHM.  The vocals are simply incredible and are a large reason why this album is so impressive.  And there you have it, Metallattorney's Album of the Year.

Evoken: Atra Mors

I have listened to this album over and over again today, just taking in the sound.  It is an extremely intense album and definitely takes some time to fully absorb.  That is what I have been doing today.  This is my first experience with Evoken, and what an experience it is.  This is an incredibly dense and challenging album, but once absorbed it is definitely worth it.

Evoken is about as bleak and desolate as music gets.  Fitting for funeral doom of course.  But the somber tone that Evoken has mastered is incredibly dark even for the genre.  The songs are all long epics with an atmosphere of desolation and pain.  But it is the clean vocals and clean riffs that really capture the listener's attention.  Many funeral doom bands utilize a wall of sound, oppressive and intense, but Evoken are able to convey the same misery and hopelessness with even their cleaner moments, soulful wailing and acoustic melodies.

It is extremely difficult to talk about this album.  I am not going to waste space talking about why you should check this out.  It is an all-encompassing experience.  It is truly something that one has to pay full attention to and interpret for themselves.  This is an incredible album, quite possibly one of the best albums in the funeral doom genre.  A modern-day masterpiece.