It’s perplexing, given the discographies of those involved, and the strength of previous offerings, that Twilight’s third, and final, album isn’t being more hotly anticipated as a holy offering from Satan himself. Twilight has featured an ever changing, but undeniably impressive, cast of American extreme metal figureheads from its inception. Aaron Turner (Isis/Old Man Gloom), Blake Judd (Nachtmystium) and Scott Conner (Xasthur) have all previously been members of the group and, even after their departures over the years, the group still boasts Sanford Parker (Minsk/Nachtmystium), Imperial (Krieg), Stavros Giannopolous (The Atlas Moth) and Wrest (Leviathan/Lurker of Chalice) amongst its ranks.
This quartet are joined, on III: Beneath Trident’s Tomb, by none other than Sonic Youth legend Thurston Moore, which is surprising in the sense that Moore has no extreme metal pedigree as a player, but less so in that he has long harboured a strong interest in the murky black metal underground. Predictably it seems that Moore’s engagement with the group has prompted a good deal of internet messageboard dissent; no doubt because being a member of one of the best, and most significant, experimental rock groups of all time isn’t very kvlt.
What listeners should soon come to realise, however, is that Moore’s involvement makes perfect sense for a group like Twilight. Whilst their self-titled debut was a more straightforward USBM affair, 2010’s Monument to Time End was a record clearly touched by music outside the black metal sphere, with clear influences from the realms of doom, post-rock and sludge. III: Beneath Trident’s Tomb is more concise than its predecessor, continuing for just over forty minutes in comparison to an hour, but its bleeding together of Twilight’s influences from inside and outside black metal circles is more developed than before.
It’s certainly a treat to here some trademark Moore guitar strangulation opening the record on ‘Lungs’, a track which cements the fact that Twilight have experimentation on their mind. It’s a savage start to the album, moving at breakneck pace into the pounding ‘Oh Wretched Son’, a track which features some of the most thunderous drumming that Wrest has yet committed to record. Things get even more intense on ‘Swarming Funeral Mass’, which features subtle industrial elements, assumedly courtesy of Parker, fresh from his involvement in industrial metal collective Corrections House.
The only problem with III: Beneath Trident’s Tomb, in effect, is that the quintet may be guilty of trying to stuff a few too many ideas into this final musical statement of theirs. The disorientating impact of the record as a whole is emphasised most clearly by closer ‘Below Lights’, which ends up careering through territory not a million miles away from the chaos driven noise of legendary post-industrial noise groups such as Skullflower and Wolf Eyes.
Despite the decidedly loose feel to proceedings it would, however, be churlish to criticise Twilight too harshly for their brazen ambition. None of these musicians have ever been known to sit too long on their laurels, and thus it would have been disappointing if III: Beneath Trident’s Tomb saw them sit back and deliver something substandard in that respect. Ultimately, whilst the scenester kvlt rating of Twilight will always remain in doubt, the quality and depth of their music will not.
