Doom has exploded over the years. And for perfectly good reasons. Bands like the ever excellent Electric Wizard, Yob, or Candlemass have established legacies in being brutal without having to tear the faces off their listeners with immense speed. Often times making something burn longer has a rewarding effect. However, we have a new generation of bands that are pushing forth with the doom genre. Bands like Atriarch that have managed to create some killer cuts up until now. But is their latest offering An Unending Pathway that brings the doom or brings the shoulder shrugs?
Artirach have been a steady cut out for the last four years. The band has remained an underground enigma not gathering too much attention until now. Though their previous cuts of doom metal/rock shouldn't go unnoticed. Up until now they've cut two full lengths: the dronier Forever the End (Seventh Rule; 2011) and the superior Ritual of Passing (Profound Lore; 2012). Now pushing forward with Relapse, the band has both forged their dreaded sound and blossomed into something a little more sinister.
What a lot of bands sometimes don't necessarily nail over time is a sound that compliments the kind of things they want to express lyrically. Artiarch is not that band. Musically and lyrically speaking the band brings out dread, depression and fury into one massive sound that they've worked to perfect over the last few albums. They've been bulding towards An Unending Pathway all the while. And what they've begun to gasp on previous efforts, especially Ritual of Passing they have by the throat here.
Anyone who has heard previous Atriarch albums knows they're more doom than anything else. An Unending Pathway is no exception to the rule. This is also their most brooding work however. The bleak, hypnotic entry point of “Entropy” echoes with a chorus-y bass lead that turns into something almost anthem-like. The song rocks with a solid punch until the shrieks of vocalist Lenny Smith really start to take hold. And for a moment, it might even seem like you've been lead into something a little more safe. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The sense of digestible content that Atriarch leads the listener on with their first track is something to smirk at. An Unending Path is through and through a bleak experience. Like a funeral procession the album plunders forth. Tracks like “Collapse” blister slow and cool with an air of solitude and abandonment that are fully metal but never corrosive. Instead the band exercises a sense of control around their mood, never letting themselves slip too far into madness but begging you peer into the abyss.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nu7QDcncgmk[/youtube]
There are moments of recklessness; sheer loss of control that Atriarch pull off with incredible ease. Pieces like “Bereavement” have sections of pure black metal blasts that send the listener spiraling down a vortex. The aggressive tendencies the and showcase act more as threats. Begging you to see what they're capable of. Though the band often relents, they still sometimes come back for more. The switch ups in structure are welcome and don't feel off or out of place.
Some have cracked on Atriarch for their perpetual depressing lyrics. I don't see a problem with it but then again I enjoy the darker stuff. An Unending Pathway has far transcended the expectations I had for it. I do admit the band tends to linger in some places but never for too long. Riffs and melodic sections can feel a little stretched. Some have come to think of this as an upgrade to Ritual of Passing and while I see what some are getting at by saying that, I think this has transcended the album many times over. An Unending Pathway is the album Atriarch was born to do. The moods are right and songs are tight as hell. Atriarch have the potential to dominate a lot of genres of heavy/extreme music, as this album shows. However, what they're doing right now fits them just fine.
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