(Andy Synn, who spent the whole weekend at MDF, still found time to handle today’s premiere)
In my opinion, the job of an article like this – one that’s simultaneously both a premiere and a review (you might even call it a preview) – is not so much to tell you what to think as it is to shape your expectations, so that those thoughts can proceed and develop free of any incorrect assumptions or misconceptions about the music.
This is particularly relevant in this case, as while Montana-based quartet Galvanist are often billed as “Experimental Doom/Death Metal” I feel that this has the potential to be misleading, even counterproductive, going into their upcoming new album, The Silence Between Stars, which has more in common – to my ears at least – with the more progressively structured, esoterically atmospheric end of the Black Metal spectrum.
That’s not to say there aren’t some deliciously doomy moments to be found – elements like the sundered atmospheric synthscapes underpinning “Dreich” and the gloom-laden, grand guignol climax of “Spiorad” recall the bleakest (albeit still “blackened”) moments of Mizmor and Bethlehem (especially the former) – but there’s also a clear debt owed here to the likes of Leviathan and Blut Aus Nord (particularly the latter’s more cosmically-inclined compositions), and it’s in this context that the album is best approached.
Of course, a big part of shaping the reader’s expectations in an article such as this one is also leaving certain things to their imagination and/or interpretation… so now I’ve got to walk a careful tightrope between giving you the right impression of the album but not giving away all its secrets.
Sure, I may have hinted at a few things already – such as how “Dreich” errs more towards the darker, doomier side of things with its bleak, brooding ambience and harrowing howls (interspersed with occasional eruptions of seething blastbeats or scintillating lead guitar) – but there’s a depth to this album which means I’ve only really scratched the surface thus far.
Which, actually, might be a good thing, as no matter what I say here I’m unlikely to be able to reveal everything that The Silence Between the Stars has to offer, even if… for example… I were to tell you that “Atrophy” possesses both a dense sonic backbone (enhanced by some irradiated black hole ambience) and a keening melodic edge that cuts through the darkness like a neutron star pulse, or that the apocalyptically intense “Hauntology” eventually opens up to become one of the album’s most dissonantly atmospheric tracks (while also providing yet another showcase for Chris Navarro’s ultra-talented, ultra-technical performance behind the kit).
Make no mistake, while these fleeting observations about the album’s overall nature – such as the way its throat-scarring vocals eschew a standard blackened rasp or doom-laden growl in favour of something altogether harsher and rawer, or how its piercing guitar work combines discordance and disharmony into something both eerily hypnotic and viscerally caustic – will certainly help prepare you for what you’re about to hear, this is one album that really must be heard, in-depth and at-length, to be truly understood.
So it’s a good thing we’re hosting the exclusive stream here today, isn’t it?
The Silence Between Stars will be released by ATMF on May 27th, on CD and digital formats, and it’s available for order now.
PRE-ORDER:
https://metalodyssey.8merch.com/product/galvanist-the-silence-between-stars-cd-pre-order/
https://atmfsssdtp.bandcamp.com/album/the-silence-between-stars
GALVANIST:
https://www.facebook.com/galvanistdoom/
https://www.instagram.com/galvanist.arcana/