Country: Canada
Genre: Blackened death/doom metal
Full length: Shadow Without A Horizon
Format: Digital, CD (limited to 300 copies), double LP (Subterranean blue vinyl – 100 copies, black vinyl – 200 copies)
Label: Hypaethral Records
Release date: June 20, 2025
What does it sound like when a human mind unravels and yields to madness? In the 1990s, I discovered the answer to this question in Abruptum’s black metal/ambient/noise masterpiece "Obscuritatem Advoco Amplectère Me". For many years, no band I encountered came near to the auditory embodiment of sheer black malevolence Abruptum encapsulated in their recordings. Now, it appears Witherer has now grasped a semblance of what ignited the mental turmoil and how to transform it into unimaginable destruction.
Where Abruptum was consistent and relentless, representing a continuous unyielding force, Witherer embodies a black hole of such extraordinary density it captures anything that ventures too closely to its event horizon. "Shadow Without A Horizon" is all consuming, engulfing all light and matter with no possibility of escape; however, this is only the beginning, the entryway leading into perdition.
Upon entering the underworld the band crafts, one begins to perceive a schizoid interpretation of hell. The constricted grip of "Shadow" is amplified by its expansive scale. The obscured characteristics of the guitars and bass, combined with the booming, reverberating drums, exemplify the unusual divergence the band achieves, elevating their compositions beyond mere brutality or extremity.
This album's terrifying Hadean allure flourishes due to its steadfast contrasts and recurring duality. Inspired by blackened death metal and funeral doom, along with personal encounters with mortality, "Shadow" merges the boundaries of temperament, atmosphere, and resonance, coming from a place too hideous for words to describe and rendering grief and havoc indistinguishable from one another.
You really won’t feel the full weight of Witherer’s material until you listen for yourself. Most of the tracks have a runtime of over ten minutes, more than enough time to grow on you while intertwining complex combinations of sentiment, becoming increasingly bulky and monstrous. With prolonged exposure the guttural and rasping vocals start to feel they’re emanating from deep in your own soul, vocalizing secret anguish as surreal atmospheric vocals become an entity unto itself, one you’re desperately trying to escape.
You will not truly grasp the complete impact of Witherer’s material until you experience it firsthand. Most of the tracks exceed a duration of ten minutes, providing ample opportunity for them to resonate with you as they weave intricate blends of emotion, growing ever more substantial and formidable. With extended listening, guttural and rasping vocals begin to seem as if they are rising from the depths of your own soul, articulating hidden pain while ethereal, atmospheric vocals transform into a being of their own, one from which you are fervently seeking escape from.
The entity in question is likely the ancient serpent, the same serpent that enticed Eve to reveal the secrets of good and evil, which ultimately resulted in her sharing that knowledge with Adam. Embracing its essence resembles a reversal of Catholic baptism, wherein one becomes unified not only with darkness but also with silence, nonexistence, and nothingness. In a way this revelation serves as a cathartic experience, allowing you to separate from everything you once perceived as real and to enter into a covenant of devotion and worship towards this entity of nothingness. –Dave Wolff
Lineup:
Tiamoath: Vocals, guitars, bass, songwriting, keyboards, bells
Øhrracle: Vocals, guitars
Hex Visceræ: Drums
Track list:
1. Fiat Umbra (Burial Beneath the Stalactites)
2. Devourer of All Graveyards
3. The Wailing Hours (Plummeting Under the Tunnels)
4. Solar Collapse Mandala
5. Praises (Gliding Through the Lightless Sea)
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