The Tome (Solitude Productions)

  As you probably know already, this album is the re-release version of the legendary compilation of the three EPs released by this venerable one man band in 2003 under Dark Vision Productions before the band’s disappearance. The demos this album contains; “Hierophant”, “The Weight Of Winter” and “Autumn Dusk”, released under Xathagorra Mlandroth own label Black Beyonds Music in 1999, 2001 and 2002 respectively, are the only official records left by this morbid soul before discontinuing his work with Hierophant… “The Tome”, even when consists in three separated works, sounds coherent and continuous, there’s no substantial differences between each one of these EP’s, every track this album contains fits perfectly in its place, creating a magnificent opus of dense and obscure Funeral Doom Metal played in the way it should. Thick and crawling riffs and its immense notes fill this album from the beginning to the end complemented by sombre and melancholic yet quite discrete keyboard work adding a depressive and disturbing atmosphere. The vocals here are a Funeral Doom Metal standard; deep, infernally suffered and obscure growls transmit desperation and anxiety in an incredibly suffocating manner. Although this three EP’s were basically self produced, the whole album’s production is more than decent, the sound here is blurry but dense enough to get immerse into a sea of desperation and solitude, there’s no major musical skills buried under the somewhat saturated sound, only death, isolation and destruction… This version also features new artwork, a pretty nice detail considering the first version one were quite basic, this whole new artwork considerably respect the whole concept and sound of this album with a really sober and sombre art. So if you are a Funeral Doom Metal diehard and missed the first press of this album or simply enjoy the suffocating sound of bands such Thergothon, Skepticism and Evoken…you better try to get this one soon. What else can I say about an already consecrated album? (AP)