To summarize quickly for those who lack the patience to read this entire review: this is a pure funeral doom record, and a very good one at that. After further carving their niche with 2011's excellent No Help for the Mighty One, SubRosa expands on their style and takes it to its ambitious apex with More Constant than the Gods.
When I heard No Help for the Mighty One, I liked it so much I put it on my best of list for 2011, and I knew that SubRosa would be a band worth watching. From the very start of More Constant than the Gods, these hopes where both confirmed and surpassed as the brilliant and opening epic "The Usher" sets the tone for an equally grandiose album of power and gloom. Listen especially for the perfectly placed violin section around the 7:35 mark. Rebecca Vernon's beautiful vocals move seamlessly between soft and serene to a more fiery, aggressive tone reminiscent of L7 and Babes in Toyland. In fact, a good way to describe SubRosa would be if L7 got together with My Dying Bride and recruited a string section. The addition of throaty male vocals made for a great counterweight as well.
From a writing perspective, one could not have lyrics that better fit their musical backdrop. Take the following lines from "Cosey Mo":
I understand your need to hide
Not from fear but from losing your mind
I promise you that I will find you
I 'll dig up every unmarked grave
I will not rest until you darling, found you
And on your tomb I'll carve your name
The sorrowful chiming sound of "Affliction" makes for an unsettling and captivating listen that purges you into what's probably the most energetic song on the album. The sound of the entire album evokes such dark and strong imagery, with a landscape both heavy and doom-laden, but with an almost 19th-Century-like aesthetic. With every doommetal riff and soaring moan from the violins, SubRosa lays down an incredibly thick atmosphere. Themes of death, struggle, sorrow and foreboding are inescapable as you make your way through each of the album's six songs.
The album does take some patience however, as SubRosa focuses their approach here almost to a fault. More Constant boasts 4 songs that pass over the 10-minute mark, the shortest clocking in at 7:30. With the band's style taken here to its logical extreme, the listener should be ready for a long procession of funeral-dirges and apocalyptic darkness that can at times be plodding and overwhelming. This would probably be my only quibble with the album, that it allows for less breathing room than it's more immediate predecessor- and could have used a few more shorter songs and perhaps a few faster tempos as well. But I'd rather not fault the band too much for this, as this was probably their intention with an album as ambitious as this.
In a metal world filled with endless death-growl/breakdown/unintelligible sweep riffing, it's a relief to hear a band take its heaviness and hone it toward something truly engaging and unique.
8/10
Favorite Songs: "The Usher", "Cosey Mo", "Affliction"
