Clairvoyance – Chasm Of Immurement Review

To cut straight to the chase, Clairvoyance’s Chasm of Immurement is riff-heavy Polish death / doom—emphasis on death—and it rules.

It is possible to be death / doom—emphasis on doom—and still rule, of course. But my ears have always been more receptive to the hybrid that stresses that slightly speedier death metal foundation above all. I don’t know that the difference is *always* measurable. But, in most cases, I know it when I hear it. Think Runemagick’s The Supreme Force of Eternity. Though there’s no buzzsaw here—the band shares more in common with Cerebral Rot or Tomb Mold—Clairvoyance clearly agrees about the proper ratio, because Chasm of Immurement, the band’s debut, is more a punch in the gut than slow torture.

Appropriately enough, the crushing, cavernous opener “Eternal Blaze” epitomizes Clairvoyance’s sound. Though the riffs are still very much in the death metal tradition, there’s a pace and an intensity that is almost, but not quite, thrash-like. That pace, and intensity, changes about three minutes in, slowing to somewhat of a crawl before picking back up again near the four-minute mark. It’s a brief, but welcome respite that lasts about as long at it should for maximum impact. And like any good song, that impact is felt most acutely after you’ve had some time to sit with it.

Clairvoyance’s punchy hypnosis is its strongest selling point. No doubt. I could walk you through the other five songs. And I may yet walk through a few, as I stumble through this unintentionally vague description of what makes Clairvoyance click. But that seed—so shiny, so punchy, so hypnotic—is so deeply embedded in the root of Chasm of Immurement that discussing it first feels necessary. Economical even. I suppose that’s why Chasm has so effectively conquered my eardrums over the past few weeks. The thoughtless exercise of programmatically setting my DAP to play it, and only it, on my walk to and from work is step one. Without that well developed punchy hypnotism, I don’t know that we get to that second stage of eardrum conquest. Simple exposure doesn’t always breed a pleasant familiarity.

As much as Chasm of Immurement is more than the sum of its parts, and as riff-heavy as it is, the driving force is arguably drummer Adrian Szczepański. His impact here is inextricable from the punchy hypnotism—I imagine he’s at least partially, if not mostly, responsible for that feature, in fact. Instructive without being clinical, Szczepański’s drumming narrates Chasm’s slight tonal shifts like a confidently firm guide. It’s a strong foundation, particularly rare on a debut.

So back to the songs, as if those matter, right? At just over 34 minutes, it’s a brief affair. And the songs range from 4:37 (“Eternal Blaze) to 7:00 (“Monument to Dread”). Not all are equal. I’d rank three shorter ones—“Eternal Blaze,” “Blood Divine,” and “Fleshmachine”—as the better ones. But they’re all varying degrees of good and great. Those three just hit hardest. Particularly “Fleshmachine,” with the squealy solo and the pummeling.

To their credit, even during those brief periods of structural and sonic deviation, Clairvoyance largely plays to its strengths. That alone is commendable, especially from a relatively young band. And the self-editing here, too, is another rarity worth celebrating. But this isn’t one of those “more to come” or “what’s here is promising” debuts. It’s not out of a sense of duty that Chasm of Immurement has become a go-to for my work commute. Highly recommended, travel companion or no.