Artist: Ghül
Title: Rhîw
Type: Album
Label: Digital / Wulfhere Productions
Abghül, the entity behind this Derby UK based black metal project is one busy person. I think around five EPs last year and this is the third full length since 2023. Plus the odd live gig. And I can’t help but be bewildered by what exactly Ghül are. This is a good thing by the way because even though there is a curious, consistent feel to the music and the themes, the approach twists and swerves and explores whatever it wants to. And this may be the most extreme yet, but damn it’s glorious.
It consists of ‘Yá Hrívë Tenë’ split into six passages with a combined length of 50 minutes. Whereas the demos before the debut were pretty much raw but fascinating black metal, the debut ‘Land Of Shadows’ added a layer of atmosphere to it which took me some time to get into and appreciate the fluid tempo changes and shifting patterns. Last years ‘Stormcrow’ which at a smidgeon over half an hour I guess is an album, however was pretty much dark ambient meets dungeon synth and both melancholy and calm, and well worth anyone’s attention. ‘Rhîw’ however…
‘Rhîw’…
The opening is simple, atmospheric guitar strumming. A wildness even in its slow pace. Synths rise and give and almost synthwave meets Winterfylleth vibe until the drums kick in and…this is monomaniacal black metal. Relentless, almost unwaving speed drumming. A riff that is distorted into a compelling noise and the howling vocals half buried in the smothering sound. It’s, well, damn, this is bordering on Black Cilice territory, yet somehow, almost subconciously, there is an eerie hook. I want to say melody but that gives the wrong impression. There is something that drags you down into it and slowly, bit by bit, you begin to hear what is in this terrifying noise.
At first it is hypnotic, like that moment when the howling abyss stares back and you see it. Gradually through these six passages, there are shifts in tempo, a sliding and layering of sound where even a pulse behind a drumbeat becomes a point to fixate upon. And yet it feels like it will never relent. Except it does. A burst of speed and suddenly hgalfway through the second passage we get quiet. Not quite silence but a darkness of a smooth drone and the intermittent pulse of something melodic. It grows, as though approaching a strange light in some pitch black cavern. Beautiful, unexpected but creating a wariness after all that has gone before.
The touch here is just perfect. The arrangement of the gradual layering, the delicacy after what has gone before but never allowing the tension to soften.
It springs its trap and beauty is shown in all it’s darkness as the noise returns, the howls. Are we pulled into it or past it? That is for the observer to experience.
For fifty minutes we are caught in this trap; savage and primal black metal raging with the most exquisite pools of dark, and somehow wondrous but still sinister ambient. As we reach the end it is almost as though we have pierced through to the heart of the land. There are those harsh vocals, a sense of pain to them, but the music has apart from the feint buzzing riff, released itself to the bleak quiet. And as though the life fades so does the music until all we are left with is stillness.
This is a magnificent work. The layering, the arrangements, the journey through the land are painted with such incredible dexterity it leaves you almost breathless by the end. It is difficult music for some I will guess, so intense and hypnotic is the violence, but persevering with the journey and braving the maelstrom of sound and icy cold and dark caverns is so rewarding.
It feels that here Ghül have brought together many of the facets they have shown on previous releases but, melded and shaped together in Rhîw, something fascinating and monstrous has been summoned.
Mesmeric.
Gizmo
Walking The Liminal Space 