I once heard funeral doom as a genre that can be measured in beats per hour. I don't disagree, for the most part. The down trodden, doomy slowdown the last few years have seen has been something of a breath of fresh air. But one that also crowds the lungs and verges on breaking the rib cage. Tyranny, however, come from a time when doom wasn't all the slow pitched, stoned out rage it is today.
With track record of playing about as fast as they release albums, Tyranny don't have much to answer to in terms of a discography (specifically, an EP and an LP). It's been ten years since the Lahti, Finland duo broke ashore with Tides of Awakening. And their crushing, slow-as-hell approach hasn't changed much as they've moved, albeit slowly, into Aeons in Tectonic Interment.
Aeons in Tectonic Interment as a title certainly represents the album well. For one, it has been, again, ten years. And ten years ago I was twenty and in college. That does seem like at least fucking aeon ago. Concerning tectonics, Tyranny are heavy, crushing bastards when they play. And not dispensing with the Lovecrafian feel that the band has carried, this is a release that solidifies what Tides of Awakening set up. Though the production has been significantly cleaned up, much of everything else remains the same.
If you're new or a bit unfamiliar with funeral doom here's a tidbit: the genre is far more focused around mood and slow tempos. And if a band can't nail mood then there's likely little the album has to offer. Tyranny are, luckily, the kind of band that can hold a mood most of the time. Aeons in Tectonic Interment isn't just a heavy record, it's something that broods and bleeds as it puts one heavy foot in front of the other. When “Sunless Deluge” starts you'll notice Tyranny getting down to business a lot faster than they had last time. The song gets noisey, then gets heavy and drones. The vocals are still dig straight down to the pits of Hell, or the shores of Rh'leyah. Take your pick.
There's a lot of bands that shoot for the H.P. Lovecraft theme these days (e.g.: Electric Wizard, Portal, Coffinfish, Temple of Dagon, etc.) but Tyranny feel like they're really pulling off a summoning ritual. Like some Eldritch horror is about to come crawling out of the speakers and break your mind. The thing is, Tyranny have a tendency to fall out of the loop, and in turn fall too harshly on drone. Don't get me wrong, the album can be plenty moody, and when it pulls it off, the band is a force of otherworldly nature. But there's points where the piece simply over-cook their moods and burn out too quickly.
Aeons in Tectonic Interment is a good album. It has some killer vibes and manages to bring a real bleak feel to some of their songs. Is it the kind of album a funeral doom fence sitter would wanna walk in to? Not so much. Tyranny has a good thing going on but casual listeners might find themselves wondering if the album is ever going to pick up steam. The answer is here and there, but not enough that it's going to drag a lot of new fans into its watery, crushing clutches. Funeral doom fans, well, you're probably already on this (as you should be). Aeons in Tectonic Interment is a good representation of how the genre can crush stones underneath its hopeless, heavy, grim sound.
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