Originally written by Chris Redar
Ephel Duath have made a name for themselves by not being able to have a name made for themselves. After a brief stint in the standard black metal valley, the band made a drastic shift into acid-jazz territory with The Painter’s Palette, and then further explored the strange landscape they had cultivated with 2005’s minor revelation Pain Necessary to Know. The combination of off-kilter instrumentation and electronic phantoms hiding within the substrate showed a level of promise that, quite frankly, not many bands were exhibiting in that timeframe. After a better-than-average remix album and a concept album about a stray dog (2009’s Through My Dog’s Eyes), the Italian stallions of weird have returned to wreak havoc once again on the senses.
There’s just one teeny, tiny little issue: Hemmed By Light, Shaped By Darkness is without a doubt the most standard-sounding album of Ephel Duath’s career. Nearly every track flirts with or crosses the seven-minute mark, yet not a single one breaks the mold of middling pace and unusually bland riffwork. It’s actually a difficult listen for the opposite reason often cited of the rest of the band’s catalog: this album is cripplingly dull and any sense of excitement is absent.
Sole remaining founding member Davide Tiso tapped Karen Crisis for vocal duties, and the results are what one would call ‘competent’. Crisis sounds like a singer who was hired to perform, rather than a performer who is driven to sing. A competent result, make no mistake, but the voice department definitely won’t be sending the record company a bill for any extra ‘oomph’. A prime example is “When Mind Escapes Flesh”. There are moments when certain words just kind of trail off, as if it felt like a chore to complete the phrase. It’s disheartening, because the lyrics are one of the high points of the album.
Tiso’s riffs also become somewhat of a burden as the album progresses. Aside from the oddball solo here and there, these leads are nearly indistinguishable from one another. If it wasn’t for the mid-pace beat that remains a constant throughout the duration, this would sound like a second-tier melo-death album. The most interesting song, from a musical standpoint, is the penultimate track “Hemmed By Light”. What sets the song apart from the rest of the album, unfortunately, is everything. It’s less than two minutes, it’s just a hair faster than anything that comes before it, and the strings set a bit of a dour mood that tracks previous might have been going for before they collapsed like hastily constructed pillars.
This should be chalked up to a swing and a miss. Other bands of this ilk would have set the ball directly on the tee and smacked a line drive to second. At the very least, Ephel Duath took a fast pitch and struck out. They’ll have another go at the plate, but for now, the pine awaits. It’s going to be a long, ass-numbing sit, however- The potential wasted at every turn on this album is almost as audible as what made the final roster. Until next time, gang.
Until next time.
