Six years on from the last Yellow Eyes album proper, Confusion Gate finds the New York band expanding their palette in the traditional USBM dynamic. Setting them apart is the incorporation of themes and sounds from their between day job release, Master’s Murmur which took a much more esoteric approach to the genre. Laying aside the riffs for synths and acoustics, this strange bedfellow now becomes key to unlocking the secrets of the new album.
For all its frosted footsteps back into the black metal genre, Confusion Gate is a much more ambient entry in terms of atmosphere, although that’s not to say there is a shortage of riffs. Indeed, ‘Suspension Moon’ contains enough triumphant marching prowess to send even the meekest into battle. It’s just that the balance throughout accentuates the post-metal ambience over the heaviness. Thematically we are on common ground though, and the terrain is certainly colder than a bleak Narnia winter.
It’s an album of exploration and whilst you can take on surface value and enjoy it for what it is (an icy blast of melodic black metal), when you take the time to unravel with a deeper dive into the preceding Master’s Murmur, there are themes and motifs which overlap. Much like watching the Marvel movies in order, the beauty is in the depth and its slow reveals.
This is music made to be understood on different levels, a rare feat in these days of immediate consumption but one which is possible for those living on the margins of music. You can argue over the virtues of art in general, but deeper meanings expose themselves on the fault lines of experimental music, and black metal is a great breeding ground for this. Yellow Eyes continue to confound and expand through their art on an album which once again moves the boundaries of black metal.
