Artist: Coltsblood
Title: Obscured Into Nebulous Dusk
Type: Album
Label: Translation Loss Records / Dry Cough Records
Hey guys, been a while eh? At the risk of paraphrasing a line from Grosse Point Blank “Eight years, man, EIGHT YEARS!” So yeah that means somehow in the plague years I missed the split with Un. But it has been a while regardless. So when it’s a band you love there is always that little bit of trepidation. Will it be good? Will I like it? Has my taste changed? The things that nibble at my brain constantly.
But Coltsblood have always been a bit special. I mean just the name they chose makes my mind stir with thoughts of dark occult folklore and sacrifice, old things that still haunt the liminal spaces. And then there is their sound. It’s almost like the essential organic pivot point that holds the worlds of death, black, doom, funeral doom and sludge together which is a heady, heady brew.
Their first full length ‘Into The Unfathomable Abyss’ was a dark, oppressive and disorienting slab of music. ‘Ascending Into Shimmering Darkness’ seemed to uncovers some glistening jewels of dark melody within the morass. So what is ‘Obscured Into Nebulous Dusk’?
‘Until The Eidolon Falls’ begins with creaking guitar, simmering cymbals and bass the pace of Khanate. The feel of some ancient presence slowly hauling itself from the depths of brackish lake. The achingly slow riff falls like mossy granite, strains to rise then falls once more. The melody of the winding, wandering guitar is almost plaintive, a huge sense of loss held by it as though trying to find direction. The harsh, death rattle vocals bring the funeral doom to the dark sludge encased sound. A moment of drums, fighting as the riff falls away as though finding a burst of energy to break free but one that fails and the world closes over it once more. Thick, plodding riff pushing it all back down, obscuring it from the world perhaps forever this time.
Oh this is good. Hopelessness, a dying struggle perhaps and absolutely thick with that mutant Coltsblood sound. Eleven and a half minutes of grim, despairing motion and final submission of something too old to be in this world any longer.
‘Waning Of The Wolf Moon’ opens with such a muscular shrug of its shoulders, pace even, that it catches you by surprise in the darkness and the cold. There is a snarl in the vocals and the wonderful loose sound of guitar and bass cranking up is an absolute joy and a seems to paint a primal fear of something unshackling itself. Predatory prowling is mixed with merciless lupine slashing and tearing of the drums the bass and the guitar. It is an absolutely monstrous track full of pace twists and savagery and ending in half obscured spoken words, self realisation and endings. This is one that reeks of folk lore in its most savage form; no pretty varnished carvings or words. Painted in blood and bound by sinew it is magnificent.
‘Transcending The Immortal Gateways’ opens in comparative tranquillity. A smooth if bleak rise and fall, the black metal high as the atmosphere and cold as the sound. The vocals give a real sense of the solitary traveller with their tortured but determined cries raw from the elements they face. The way the bass pushes deep, melodic notes through the fuzzed guitar and then the lead painting gorgeous bleak stillness is just beautiful. Like the cold slowly sapping your soul, it wraps around you and you find yourself in its sway not realising that melody is stealing your essence. But you strudge onwards, regardless into obscurity.
And finally ‘Obscured Into Nebulous Dusk’. A church organ beckons you, the voice of a deranged preacher, a prophet of the absolute hopelessness of finding aid from gods long dead, perhaps, or simply pouring scorn upon the flagellants shuffling by with ash on their clothes and fear in their minds. It is unrelenting, whatever the truth. This is tearing away even that last tissue thin veil of optimism that we will be ‘saved’. This is indeed the end.
The long awaited third album from the Coltsblood trio is just dark, dense, ugly beauty. The songs have perfect pace, the arrangements bring nuance and motion to the lead weight atmosphere the press upon you. We have that slow rise of melody throughout, the echoing, wandering guitar and the moments of bass. We have the drumming that powers that downbeat on the riff and dances between the bones of the guitar. And the vocals lead us onwards, whispering in our heads, growling just out of sight and berating our foolish belief in a power that will save us.
Dark folklore, bleak philosophy, occult glimpses. Masterful songwriting, superb arrangement and perfect production. This is just utterly mesmerising music and, after such a passage of time they have not only rekindled their darkness but have created their finest work so far. Seriously. Doom, black, death, sludge; whatever your darkness you should peer deeply into this.
Herein lies some soul crushing truth. Wrapped in obscurity, haunting the shapes of ruins rent by the elements and worn by time perhaps but there is a truth here. Facing it is an entirely different struggle.
Gizmo
https://coltsblood.bandcamp.com/
https://drycough.bandcamp.com/album/obscured-into-nebulous-duskl
Walking The Liminal Space 