Review : Atramentus - Stygian by Echoes and Dust

Via Echoesandust.com : "Funeral doom is an odd genre. Despite being, in many ways, one of the most extreme and challenging of metal’s subsidiaries, it has become – almost since inception – rather conservative. In other words, there’s seldom a band that comes along and challenges the form, and for whom people would later continue to acknowledge as still being rightly classed as funeral doom. As such, I have always found it a sub-genre that, due to those narrow boundaries drawn around it, produces three types of album: the utterly terrible and boring; the decent, but forgettable and destined never-to-be-replayed; or, the stand-out, excellent album that manages to nail the sound and takes its place alongside the jewels of the genre.

Atramentus hail from Canada. Born from mastermind Phil Tougas being caught in a blizzard in the winter of 2012 and, later on, suffering a difficult mental health period during the autumn of 2013, band members were added over the next few years, with a drummer being the final piece of the puzzle, as they did not want to press ahead with programmed drums. A five-piece who feature members who contribute to a vast host of (so far) much more active bands, the quintet has finally found themselves pulled back to the project – this monumental piece of work – and a concept that interlinks with one of Tougas and Claude Leduc’s other bands (namely Chthe’ilist). Stygian, marks their first ever recorded output as Atramentus, and the two larger tracks have been the principle music that has been sculpted during the past eight years.

Meticulous focus on the writing, production, mixing, mastering, conceptual and artistic approach has led them to their debut album finally seeing the light. Featuring members who are recognisable from their work in bands such as Gevurah, Sutrah and Funebrarum, to name just a few, Atramentus felt like ‘the real deal’ before a single note was heard, especially as their existence, to most, seemed like it was announced at the same time as the album was reported to be coming in 2020, and via the excellent 20 Buck Spin, no less. If you can’t tell by now, Stygian falls into the third type of funeral doom album – the one that stays with you and bears endless repeated listens – and in some of its’ final moments the record even manages to bring in some other elements that do challenge the mould.

Centring around the concept that a lone knight is granted immortality, that is bestowed upon him through the gift of the gods’ sword, only to see all that he ever knew and loved die as he witnesses the death of our Sun and the resulting pitch black Earth enveloped in crushing ice and an eternal blizzard, it’s certainly a fitting concept for an expansive, colossal funeral doom album. The album evokes the autumn of humanity and life of Gaia before being captured in a hopeless winter, stretching out into the embers of time, and with one uninterrupted, solipsistic view forever. Stygian is broken up into three tracks – the first at sixteen minutes and change, the second – acting as a bridge – coming in at just shy of five and the final track being the most gigantic, lumbering mammoth-like at a little over twenty-three minutes long. This leaves Stygian totalling at under forty-five, meaning despite the utterly epic nature of the two main pieces on offer, the album never feels like it runs to such an extreme length as to cause detriment to the listening experience.

Before I launch into a more detailed review of the music of Stygian, it would seem completely remiss to not pause to utter a ‘wow’ to the artwork. Unmistakably from the brush and canvas of Polish artist Mariusz Lewandowski, who’s dark, deeply evocative imagery has adorned recent albums by Bell Witch, False, Mizmor, Abigail Williams, Lares, Jupiterian and more, how absolutely perfect is this painting for the cover of such a style of music as Atramentus’? He’s also clearly got quite the taste in music, as not one of those aforementioned albums is anything short of brilliant. I’ve spotted a list of a handful of other records he’s allowed his work to be morphed into LP covers for in recent years, and I, for one, will be making sure to check out those ASAP, in the hopes that at least some more might be mined as sonic gold dust.

Atramentus’ debut opens with ‘Stygian I: From Tumultuous Heavens… (Descended Forth the Ceaseless Darkness)’ and the opening of our planet’s funeral dirge. Mournful chords reverberate around the desolate waste, crying out from a synth-laden, harpsichord effect. They almost sound like the hands of time ringing out from the heavens, declaring the end of all things. Humungous, smothering guttural growled vocals spill out over the dulcet sledgehammer guitars and bruising, smouldering drums. Almost immediately the greats of funeral doom are conjured, and with the harrowing bass and menacing synth playing, dark ambient acts immediately come to mind as well. From the first few minutes of this gargantuan tracks, acts such as Thergothon, Warning, Evoken and Mournful Congregation are ushered forth.

There is a depth to their creation that is truly awe-inspiring, and although very different, put me in mind of the context and complexity that came with Bell Witch’s Mirror Reaper. Atramentus, with their high-concept and penchant for bringing in some classic epic doom sounds, grandiose drumming and synths during the mid-point of the opening track, can also be deeply reminiscent of ‘classic’ bands such as Candlemass and, dare I say it, even Queensrÿche. Their sound is utterly, and completely all-encompassing, as only brilliant funeral doom should be, and ‘Stygian I’ certainly announces the band are a supreme force to be reckoned with. My only query would be whether the last minute or so of the track really adds much to the overall song, as the rest of the instrumentation falls away to leave the drums almost solo, slowly devolving and fading out. I think the fade out could have come quite a bit sooner, with this period being the only moment on the entire album that I felt didn’t feel deeply necessary and spellbindingly atmospheric.

‘Stygian II: In Ageless Slumber (As I Dream in the Doleful Embrace of The Howling Black Winds)’ is an ambient bridge between the two titanic tracks and is largely the brainchild of François Bilodeau, the man behind the synths. It is a neat piece that joins the album together conceptually, as our protagonist, having witnessed the end of everything, falls into a deep, but still restless, troubled sleep, hoping – one assumes – to sleep away eternity. But the black winds continue their endless fury [Atramentus being the deity of winds], with an energy slowly rising in the dark ambient soundscape created, before it whips up to begin verging on noise territory. Before it ever reaches bedlam, the voracity of this apocalyptic weather eventually wakes our doomed hero to winter; a winter like no other before and a winter without end.

Stygian closes with the simply mesmerising ‘Stygian III: Perennial Voyage (Across the Perpetual Plains of Crying Frost & Steel-Eroding Blizzards)’. Twenty-three minutes of riffs large enough to cause seismic movement on a global scale. Some of the best bands funeral doom and its associates have had to offer, such as Trouble, Esoteric, Fates Warning and Scald all occur as we traverse the bitter, frozen hulking pass of this track. Moving from gurgled, incredibly low vocals, to a more recognisable gruff and rough iteration, to epic, sumptuous choral work that recalls orthodox Christian singing, and – from a perspective of extreme metal – the incredible vocal work evident on Батюшка (Batushka’s) debut album Литоургия (Litourgiya).

Throughout its massive run-time ‘Stygian III’ never lets up or disappoints. It is epic in the very definition of the word. Despite the repetition and utterly bleak nature of the track, the album and of course funeral doom itself, the track – and indeed Stygian overall – has so much detail to offer to always remain interesting, nay deeply intriguing and bears revisits immediately. As a final salvo, Tougas and Leduc introduce a glacial, frozen cold black metal riff, where suddenly the huge mass that is Atramentus suddenly threatens to pick up pace, with the drums storming ahead out of the absolute zero ice, before as quickly as it comes, reminding us of the Atramentus-imbued black winds still blowing at horrific, numbing speeds, it fades into ambient reverie.

Xavier Berthiaume, their drummer and of Gevurah fame, is clearly a black metal specialist, and so his style – although having to fit into the funeral doom template – does have that vivid style reminiscent of the sunless north of America and black metal’s home in northern Europe. Berthiaume also mixed the record, and this approach does give the whole of Stygian a slightly different sound to many funeral doom records. There is a very subtle, blackened, or maybe it should be ‘frostbitten’ edge to it. Finally, the album was mastered by none other than Greg Chandler of Esoteric, rounding off the finishing touches to an, at times, unbelievably accomplished debut LP.

It should be noted that despite Atramentus currently enjoying being seen as a ‘new band’, they have been a project for eight years, with the majority of the two ‘main’ tracks on this album having been written for almost that length of time, meaning that this record in many ways is as old, if not older, than the material on the debut full-length of Chthe’ilist, for example. It seems that the band, like their protagonist, has all the time in the world, and have not rushed out this jewel (buried deep in the frozen ice).

Absolutely monumental, Stygian will be an album that stands the test of time and will surely elevate the band to a seat at the table of the often maligned, often misunderstood and wholly unappreciated sub-genre. Perhaps with their debut they can encourage more to delve into the bleak corridors of unknowing funeral doom inhabits. Either way, Stygian itself, is an essential listen this year." Originally written for https://www.echoesanddust.com/ by Chris Keith-Wright

Review : Atramentus - Stygian by EsotericaCodex

Via EsotericaCodex : "Freezing. Paralyzing. Desolate. Suffocating. Ancient. These words all perfectly describe and ultimately black-out the canvas of soot that Atramentus use to cover your rotting casket as their debut album “Stygian” blasts six feet above ground to the mourning in your loved one’s tears as they say their final goodbyes. Atramentus is not exactly a new comer to Metal. Formed in 2012 in Quebec, Canada, Philippe Tougas ( CHTHE’ILIST and FUNEBRARUM) wrote the band’s debut album “Stygian” and shelved it away for many years. Tougas did eventually assemble a full line-up but the album would not be recorded until December of 2018. The band self-recorded and self-produced their debut album and were eventually signed by 20 Buck Spin. That’s just the Cliff Notes version of the band’s wretched history. For a Funeral Doom band taking that long to release any sort of material, I would say that was the right amount of time to properly execute an album that at times is an even more extreme version of all Funeral Doom that has comes before them. Even Death Doom in certain moments. In the last handful of years both sub genres have seen amazing and soul-crushing releases by Evoken, Loss, Spectral Voice, Bell Witch, Lycus, etc. “Stygian” feels like the slowest and most overwhelmingly misery-induced coldness and dread of all of the bands and stretches those heart-tearing low chords and vocals that give Demilich a run for their money. Yet at the same time of course this band owns just as much as the pioneers of Funeral Doom such as Skepticism, and Therogothon.

Only 3 songs all clocking in at a total of forty four minutes and forty nine seconds yet “Stygian” at times is more than just another Funeral Doom to blast and annoy your friends, loved ones, family, neighbors just so you can clear the room out just so you can have a bit of social distancing. Ultimately yourself this is music you want to fucking torture yourself into listening and seeing if you can take the pressure of giving it the full album treatment. As absurd as that may sound, it’s actually hilarious in a grave-like humor sort of way, even if there is nothing funny about this album to begin with. The first song titled “Stygian I: From Tumultuous Heavens… (Descended Forth The Ceaseless Darkness)” starts out with the obvious slow piano keys that one would hear echoing through the corridors of eternal darkness. Then the low gutteral frog vokills come in and it’s an immediate drop into the frozen chasm that is the void that “Stygian” engulfs. Composition wise, it’s slow dying riff after crashing drums with some slow double kick mixed-in. But the ambient keys and overall atmosphere is where the strength lies in this band. Tune low all you want, but when it comes to Funeral Doom, you HAVE to create an atmosphere where the light of God himself is completely absent. Right around the 4:30 minute mark of the first track (as heard in the Youtube sample clip above) is where you get an actual clear picture of how completely fucking vacant that void Atramentus helps create is. The second track “Stygian II: In Ageless Slumber (As I Dream In The Doleful Embrace Of The Howling Black Winds)” is a pure instrumental track which is nothing but dark ambient music which sounds like the score to an 80’s horror movie where an ancient evil presence is draining the life force out of evil murderous humans in a ice-freezing cold citadel somewhere high in the mountains amidst during a snow storm and there is no way to escape it. At this point, I legit can see my breath in front of my face as I listen to the track while I am typing this. My blood has frozen solid and I am trapped in river of Cocytus chained to Him; the fallen one. The first to rebel. The final song on this agonizing motherfucker of an album is simply titled “Stygian III: Perennial Voyage (Across The Perpetual Planes Of Crying Frost & Steel-Eroding Blizzards)“. As if this goddamn album didn’t want to remind you that you are listening to it as a new release in the misery-inducing bullshit planet year of 2020, well it’s just going to swallow whatever hope you had for the next 30 years and shit all-over it. Forget it, there is no escape from the asphyxiating and stifling darkness. There is a small break from the ongoing lumbering funeral dirge requiem this song is and builds up to a wall of guitar solo which then evolves in a violent and destructive shattering barrage of black metal riffs. A storm of freezing tremolo that slowly fades away and all you hear are the winds and dark ambiance. Thus ending our journey into the heart of darkness.

Lyrically…this album reads like sort of ancient concept story of god-knows what. I’ll give you an excerpt of the lyrical “passages”:

“Alone & isolated from the outside world, I slumber through the ages. No dread and sorrow nor pain to feel, but only the eternal utter blackness in the dreamless void. I feel at peace here, but at times when I think I am truly safe, a glimpse of a troubled memory resurfaces and dissipates as soon as it manifested itself. Long have I yearned to learn to ignore the echoes of the waking world for they are not for me to be concerned about anymore. I plunge deeper into the dreamless pits of nothingness, seeking my eternal refuge in the silent embrace of the void.“

Past the musical composition, the lyrical themese, the artwork is absolutely gorgeous. A stunningly beautiful and depressing painting done by Polish artist Mariusz Lewandowski who (if you know your artwork history) has done commissioned album artwork for bands such as Bellwitch, Mizmor, and Abigail Williams. The image of an ancient warrior left in the aftermath of a barren, hopeless planet once called Earth is facing the fathomless and faceless ghosts of the past as he himself cannot die in a world where the sun has gone supernova has extinguished all of what once lived there. A desolate realm of where one has immortality gifted by the universal creator only to be suspended in perpetual freezing agony never able to be free of his constant pain. Forever suffering. “Stygian” may just as well be the ultimate expression of how the year of 2020 has been for everyone: long, agonizing, and a world without end. This album is catharsis. Atramentus “Stygian” is now available on 20 Buck Spin. Also if I were you, I would pick-up one of those sweet ass fucking longsleeve “Stygian” 4-sided print."

Originally written by Sean Wright for https://esotericacodex.wordpress.com/

Review : Atramentus - Stygian by GrimmGent

Via Grimmgent : "Over the last three decades, the sub-genre of funeral doom metal set its boundaries by interweaving its slow and lethargic paces with the wavering bleak atmosphere of the synthesizer. This peculiar style of structuring the songs through long measured lengths differed substantially from the fundamentals of death metal. Like the forefathers of funeral doom metal such as Skepticism and Thergothon, the Canadian funeral doom outfit Atramentus dilates their monolithic craft on the debut album ‘Stygian‘, set for a release date on friday August 21 through 20 Buck Spin. In the last few years the underground metal scene has embraced the artistic masterpieces of the Polish painter Marius Lewandowski, whose imaginative creativity was displayed on a number of cover arts. Lewandowski has produced many breathtaking portraits in the last couple of years and perhaps his most memorable portrait is the cover album of the funeral doom metal band Bellwitch. And because there is a lot of demand for such exotic art, his aesthetic work on the newest album of Atramentus is yet another paradigm of his vision.

‘Stygian‘ is a deep interpretation of funeral doom metal: its three prolonged tracks feel like a forlorn dirge of bygone times. The album opener ‘Stygian I: From Tumultuous Heavens…(Descended Forth The Ceaseless Darkness‘ offers a dark and haunting atmosphere of wailing growls. Atramentus provides the listener with somber dirges and while the songs occasionally change, they somewhat bring a familiar tone of the funeral doom classics. ‘Stygian‘ has the fundamental quality of exploring the dark depths of the abyss. I must say that the cover art of the album perfectly mirrors the songs. Simultaneously, the music invokes beauty and misery though there are many haunting moments that are mainly applied in the mid-tempo sections. Atramentus creates many chilling soundscapes with the use of the organ and the drifting howls seem highly effective in paving a desolate pathway to an endless procession. The drums carry a heavy and ponderous beat to perfect the slow rhythmic pace of the mournful anthems. While the guitars altogether sound down-tuned, they add harmonies to the song texture. Atramentus features the band members of amogst others Chthe’ilist, Funebrarum and Guverah.

The lineup includes Phil Tougas (growls, chants and guitars), Claude Leduc (guitars), François Bilodeau (synth, piano), Antoine Daigneault (bass) and Xavier Berthiaume (drums).

‘Stygian II: In Ageless Slumber (As I Dream in the Doleful Embrace of the Howling Black Winds)‘ intertwines much suspense with other elements like the synth and the cold wintry soundscapes, creating a foreboding sense of doom. Atramentus sprawls over the dramatic suspense on this track which approximately lasts for less than five minutes. The Canadian quintet stretches the ambient sounds to variable changes in the atmosphere.  

The final track ‘Stygian III: Perennial Voyage (Across the Perpetual Planes of Crying Frost and Steel & Steel Eroding Blizzards)’ is the longest cut on the album, extending to an epic time length of twenty-three minutes. The song slowly oscillates between the epic dirges of funeral doom metal. On this track, the riffs build up a unique composition that you won’t experience in other funeral doom bands. The epic gloom along with the bursting growls provides a ghostly feel, while the guitars fabricate a morose theme.

These overwhelming elements burst out in a flurry of emotions from the rough anguishing growls to the mournful melody of the piano. Atramentus has surely created their own niche. ‘Stygian‘ combines the somber qualities that define the dark aesthetics of funeral doom. You’ll find that musical spells are expanded to create different moods and feelings. Through the final moments of this track, Atramentus fuses delicate melodies and synthesizers. With the layered ambiance and soft vocals beautifully aligned, the guitars sound denser when suddenly the drums execute some blast beats. Without emphasizing the complexity, Atramentus treads solemnly along the musical patterns of the Finnish originators Thergothon.

Towards epic heights they have filled their music with majestic soundscapes and beautiful sonic ornaments so that the listener would find solace. These Canadians have emerged as true torchbearers that make their music a true counterpart of nineties classics such as Skepticism‘s debut album ‘Stormcrowfleet‘ and Thergothon‘s ‘Stream from the Heavens‘. Therefore, ‘Stygian‘ shines like a gleaming star on a moonless night. The debut voyages through an epic and gloomy realm, making each moment of its length a worthy listen to the fans of this sub-genre.   8.8 SCORE

These Canadians have emerged as true torchbearers that make their music a true counterpart of nineties classics such as Skepticism's debut album 'Stormcrowfleet' and Thergothon's 'Stream from the Heavens'." Originally written by Maxen for Grimmgent.com