Finnish death doom metal debut album. Features new artwork from the mighty Shoggoth Kinetics and remastered by Jay at Abhorrent Audio.
The music's potency reveals itself in the instrumental opener, "Frostbane Overture," where the grandeur of a cathedral organ emerges, initially accompanied by a tranquil piano melody. However, this tranquility is misleading, as an impending sense of doom soon envelops the atmosphere.
Ancient doom heavily influences the music, characterized by colossal, distorted guitar chords, bass notes resembling collapsing girders, funereal drumbeats resonating like giant footsteps, mournful melodies expressing the sorrow of lost souls, and abyssal vocals, occasionally escalating into eerie howls. The music simultaneously submerges and propels the listener with its commanding riffs.
For enthusiasts of old-school doom's substance, threat, and melancholic melodies, Solothus delivers cataclysmic soundscapes. Their music is not solely defined by this; interspersed within the desolate ambiance, moments arise where the pace quickens, colossal riffs akin to a death metal juggernaut surge forward. The songs sway between heavy rhythms and cavernous proclamations before descending into a lamenting crawl, epitomized in the middle section of "Plaguewing."
The album concludes with the colossal 11 1/2-minute opus, "Upon Shattered Lands." Commencing with harsh, echoing guitar notes accompanied by a formidable bass line and solemn drumbeats, the music takes on a catastrophic quality, staggering like a mortally wounded giant. Transitioning into a vigorous stride with robust, chugging riffs, the song alternates between this intensity and booming doom chords. In its latter half, it transforms into genuine funeral doom, moving as slowly as continental shifts and nearly as massive, featuring growls so profound and remorseless that they embody the voiceless void.
