Review by Sandre the Giant
Dutch funeral doom newcomers Angmodnes have actually been around since 2013 but ther debut record ‘Rot of the Soul’ has just come out this year through Meuse Music Records. Their 2022 EP ‘The Weight of Eternity’, mostly made up of older material, was pretty well received by us at the Killchain (read the review here), so I look forward to seeing what their new songs can do in a genre that is generally high on quality.
Opener ‘Beneath’ has a morbid beauty to it; massive growls and mourning riffs crush you beneath their feet like damp leaves on a winter’s day and that melancholy is real. The mix of a cleaner roar and the deep growls is a nice touch, bringing some shades of grey into the Swallow the Sun-esque monolithic, crashing riffs. The addition of ‘F.S’ on vocals adds a sombre new element to everything; her ethereal voice cuts through the glacial cliffs of guitar to add a new layer of sadness to ‘The Hours’. The delicate piano keys opening ‘The Hours’ was a nice touch too, (channelling a little ‘Moonlight Sonata’ perhaps?) as is all uses of piano in funeral doom generally. ‘Agony of the Sun’ opens with furious black metal riffing after another piano intro, a shock to the system expecting crumbling brutality. It kinda works though, slowly the pace drops and the Paradise Lost-esque leads take you back down to the doom. ‘Stagnant’ is a haunting, emotional piece, while the closing title track takes elements from the Peaceville Three as well as Skepticism and even Thergothon to create a close to perfect distillation of how funeral doom can amaze and affect. That mid section where it becomes an almost epic blackened doom track is glorious.
‘Rot of the Soul’ creaks and aches with a miserable passion for the doom, and while there are moments where chinks of light peek through the obsidian armour of Angmodnes most of the record is pure funeral doom classicisms. It can be oddly uplifting in places, which provides a new approach to funeral doom that I quite like, but when Angmodnes go for the slow motion crush at full strength, their power is undeniable. ‘Rot of the Soul is more than worth your time.
https://www.facebook.com/angmodnes/
https://angmodnes.bandcamp.com/album/rot-of-the-soul
https://www.meusemusicrecords.eu/
The Killchain 