Ah, the joys of trawling through the hundred of new releases that drop into our electronic mailbox of metal. I’ll often pick out a release based on the mood I’m in. Sometimes I want something old fashioned, a rocker; or maybe something bouncy so I’ll look for some pop/punk. Tonight I was feeling like I wanted to punch holes in the wall and I spotted “Spanish Death Doom” and thought… yeah, let’s give that a whirl.
With a bunch of songs ranging in length from seven to eight minutes, In Loving Memory really strike the doom chords and it’s not music to thrash to… but it’s just what the head doctor ordered for me this evening. After dipping into the middles of a couple of songs to get a flavour, I played it from the beginning and was completely wrapped up in it.
The opening chords of “Stellar Runaway” may evoke the likes of Paradise Lost, but the refrain that kicks in shortly afterwards is something else. Plaintive and flowing, it winds around the ridiculously heavy rhythm as hoarse death vocals flow under the music. Keyboards are used both as backing and as a lead instrument now and again. If I have a criticism, it’s that the vocals are far too low down in the mix, though due to their style they’re not easy to decipher anyway.
Honestly, just this one song has it all. Lovely widdly bits, slow headbanging moment, leads that transfer from guitar to keys and back, atmosphere, brilliantly simple rhythms… and there are nine more songs to go with it. Even with a runtime of 8:10, it doesn’t seem overlong. The composition isn’t the song standard verse/chorus, instead the track is put together like a piece of “proper” music, so it carries the listener through a journey. A fairly epic one.
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“Lead Clouds” starts with an almost uplifting refrain, truly soaring and not really doomy… actually pushing into joyous, if you can do joyous with instruments downtuned enough to cause structural damage. You can check out “The Dance of Moons” below, and again it shows that a band playing fairly slow, heavy, ponderous music can still bring in some external influences to spice things up. I’m getting a folk vibe from the opening riff and it’s a thing of beauty.
I’m not going to try to describe every track. Suffice it to say that every single one is a bludgeoning beauty. It’s grand, it’s epic, it’s huge. And it’s brilliant. There is absolutely no filler on The Withering, with every song being worth a repeated play. It’s earned a valued spot on my phone’s memory card. This doesn’t happen often.
The Withering is In Loving Memory’s first release in eight years, following on from an EP in 2014. It’s eleven years since their last full album. Like a fine wine, a good beer, decent cheddar or the most valuable whiskies, this proves that the best things need time to mature.
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The Withering is out now and available via Bandcamp
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