Has it really been four years since Eparistera Daimones initially flattened the metal community?
Damn!
So for the uninitiated Triptykon is the vision of one Tom G. Warrior of Hellhammer / Celtic Frost legend and was formed following the demise of the latter in 2008 with the intent to continue on the path of crushing darkness that was Celtic Frost’s final and magnificent Monotheist album.
The line-up completed by scene veterans V. Santura (guitar), Norman Lonhard (drums) and relative newcomer Vanja Slajh (bass and vocals) the end result was the debut release of the afore mentioned Eparistera Daimones, which succeeded handsomely in design, and backed this up with a crushing live display of power.
Meanwhile the initiated will want to know if they can repeat this success.
Short answer…. No….. Because they have actually somehow improved on it with an imperious extreme metal album that will blow your tiny fragile mind in its scope, range, innovation and unbridled heaviness!
And that’s just the opening track ’Tree Of Suffocating Souls’ which bursts into life in a squall of feedback and wastes no time hitting top gear with a grinding and relentless death metal assault which weaves in more twists and turns that would satisfy the majority of other bands for a whole album, but the dual vocal chorus and sudden intrusion of middle eastern acoustic guitar being the two main highlights.
‘Boleskine House’ slows the pace down with a melancholic semi acoustic intro which gives way to loud pounding drums and an extremely heavy bass RIFF (seriously…it’s heavy!) with Tom and Vanja exchanging clean vocals in the verse and the chorus dialing up to full on crushing doom.
I should also point out it’s somewhat epic in length too as the album clocks in at 75 minutes with the shortest tracks clocking in at 6 minutes but this is a mere footnote as you become completely drawn into the atmospherics.
The mournful chiming clank that introduces ‘Altar Of Deceit’ completely outfoxes you for the absolutely MASSIVE RIFF that follows it for some seriously HEAVY DOOM and is the most “straightforward” track on the album which emphasises its colossal nature. ‘Breathing’ initially picks up the doom baton from ‘Altar Of Deceit’ until deviating into fast and furious death metal with plenty of twisting and turning dynamics (again containing more RIFFS than you can shake a stick at).
And we haven’t even reached the true highlight yet which for me comes with the post-metal inflected ‘Aurorae’ which is just simply breathtaking, opening with cycled drum patterns, scaling melodic guitars and dramatic spoken word delivery that increasingly and slowly builds tension in the vein of Cult Of Luna that ultimately reaches a stunningly cathartic crescendo.
Blimey!
If that was the beauty then ‘Demon Pact’ is definitely the beast as it drags you into a crushing void with the off kilter tribal drumming, dramatic synths and doom laden atmosphere conveying a startling sense of oppression and apprehension.
‘In The Sleep Of Death’ takes into “normal” crushing doom territory with Tom at his dramatic vocal best lamenting the loss of women named “Emily” which along with the melodic guitar work brings to mind My Dying Bride, all of which leaves the epic ‘Black Snow’ to close the show in suitably grandiose fashion, i.e. grinding heavy twisting doom.
It’s exhausting, it’s draining, it’s crushing, it’s monolithic…. it’s perfection.
