It’s almost spring. But that doesn’t mean we’re out from under cover of winter’s gloom just yet. Thankfully there is music out there that understands the maudlin grip and suppressive effect that the tempests have on our collective seasonal mood. Enter
Godthrymn, the new project from My Dying Bride guitarist and vocalist Hamish Glencross and drummer Shaun Taylor-Steels. Released on Valentine's Day, Godthrymm's debut LP
Reflections is a deliberate throwback to the Peaceville Records, ‘90s era British doom metal. It captures the plodding, lightless epic reach of Paradise Lost while managing to bring a new glint of tarnished grandeur to these well-trodden and soiled proceedings. There is a satisfyingly fresh aroma of damp earth about the album that is reifying to the senses at the same time that it serves as a weighty reminder of our mortality. Like the recently filled dirt of a fresh grave following a rainstorm, its promise of life renewed is also the final bed for the dead and inextricably bound with inert finitude. If this sounds bleak, it’s because it is. Opener, “Monster Lurk Herein” is reminiscent of Paradise Lost during their Gothic era with its overbearing, mournful and highly melodic guitar work. “We Are the Dead” is a melancholic ballad with tarry bass, high soaring leads, and grand cavern running vocals. “The Grand Reclamation” begins with a beautiful, desaturated guitar hook before transitioning into depressed Solitude worship with gravity intensifying hooks and vocals that rise in pain to invoke a malevolent darkness. It’s extremely sad, and incredibly cathartic. Get in kid, we’re going crying.
Grab a copy of
Reflections from Profound Lore,
here.
