FATHOMAGE - Autumn's Dawn, Winter's Darkness
Northern Silence Productions
The two times of the day when I like to write about music are late at night after work and mid mornings. Basically I'm winding down or getting wound up. Listening to this release from Australia's FATHOMAGE is a two fold. I could easily end my evening with it or wake my ass up to it. Obviously I've given up my hand to the thoughts I have on it.
FATHOMAGE is a one man black metal act from Australia. The one man multi-instrumentalist is named Akul. Musically this is a black metal pantheon of beauty and the bestial. BM textures abound while melancholy guitar picking, whether it's acoustic or electric, take the listener on a atmospheric journey. Akul provides painful screams from some very depressive bowels. But then there are other times when he screams out with a terrifying banter. either way his vocals command attention.
Overall musically the introduction segments to these cuts, there's eight in all, really drag you in but a few drag on too much. I mean if I was high on drugs I wouldn't mind but I don't do that stuff anymore. I drink a bit but still not as much to assume I'm on an astral plane. Opener and title cut "Autumn's Dawn, Winter's Darkness" is amazing. Follow that up with "The Majesty and Beauty of a Fallen World" which is truly epic atmospheric BM. I love the keyboards on this one.
A big surprise for me is liking the acoustic guitar instrumental "In the Twilight of the Night". It's a complete break from the BM norm and I think an album of this majestic BM attitude needs it. Carrying on "Light of the Eternal Dawn" is a beautiful ode to Norwegian BM.
It starts out ridiculously radical and harsh with some cool tremolo picked riffs. Then introduces some tranquil melody to cool things off for a minute or two. Next all hell rips loose with tremolo picked melodies. This is a total wall of BM fury which almost had me shifting to the outdoor speakers just to piss off the neighbors. The closing song, "We Wept Under the Moonlight Shadow" which is a fourteen minute plus epic piece. Good stuff all around on this one.
This is the seventh full length by Akul under the band name FATHOMAGE. The first album, Portraits of an Illustrative Mania, came out in 2018. Here we are years later and Akul gives us a well balanced atmospheric black metal album.
LISTEN TO and BUY IT HERE:
https://fathomage.bandcamp.com/album/autumns-dawn-winters-darkness
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