[colored_box color=”grey”]Rating: 8.5
Label: Century Media
Website: Link
Author: Kostas Tsotsanis[/colored_box]
Triptykon cannot be characterized under a specific metal genre. Mostly, they create doom metal songs or death metal ones. However, the band mixes up genres so much that they have created something unique; A sound which we will always link with Triptykon, whenever we hear an unknown song of them in the radio or in the net. The vocals always seem to be close to the death metal growls but in a few songs (like ‘Altar of Deceit’ for example) the band uses deep and preaching vocals, which tend to remind me of black metal vocals, over slow or melodic riffs.
Most of the songs are slow, doom and full of emotions. In ‘Aurorae’, the band performs ambient guitar melodies over a groovy, rhythmical background, which will surely give everyone the chills. The vocals remind me the early Paradise Lost in this one, something which I adored. ‘In the Sleep of Death’, a great amount of heavy doom or blackened sludge influence is noticeable, helping the band with the need to create a catastrophically chaotic mood through music. Of course, faster songs like a few moments in ‘Black Snow’ or the whole ‘Tree of Suffocating Souls’ could not be taken apart from this record. Those moments add the aggressive aspect of Triptykon in ‘Melana Chasmata’, an aspect which is totally interesting!
Another fact I could not leave out of my review, is the use of female vocals in ‘Waiting’ and in ‘ Boleskine House’. I personally love female vocals in records like these. They add a gothic tone, something haunting and emotionally bursting. Those vocal lines fit perfectly in those songs, bonded together with the whole philosophy of the album. In ‘Boleskine House’ especially, the vocals seem to be part of the ground-shaking, dark romance, which flows throughout the song.
Once again, Triptykon amazed us with a complex album. The listener should give some time for the music to start reacting actively in the mind and I am pretty sure that it will be an enjoyable (well…more of a redemptive) experience!
P.S. This review is dedicated to the loving memory of H. R Giger…
| Track List | Line Up | 01. Tree of Suffocating Souls 02. Boleskine House 03. Altar of Deceit 04. Breathing 05. Aurorae 06. Demon Pact 07. In The Sleep of Death 08. Black Snow 09. Waiting |
Thomas Gabriel Fischer – Vocals, Guitars Vanja Slajh – Bass V. Santura – Guitars, Vocals Norman Lonhard – Drums |