It takes a lot for me to listen to instrumental progressive or extreme metal these days. However, there's one exception: I'm much more likely to listen to instrumental music of that sort if it involves doom. There's something about the unwinding, whirling appeal of groovy riffs played to their own tune and for their own purpose that just rubs me the right way. The best example of this is the now defunct Tempel (maybe? kinda? are you alive guys? please?), the demise of which I have been lamenting for years now.
A flicker of light passed my face, however, when I listened to the first track off of Melpomene's A Body Is A Suggestion. Those chunky guitars, fuzzy tones, and overall dark-yet-melodic sound is exactly what I love about instrumental metal spliced with doom. Add in a whole bunch of death metal influences, cover art by Helvetica Blanc, one of my favorite visual artists, and a fierce dedication to queer politics and radical experimentation, and you get one of the releases which most blew me away instantly this year. Head on down below to indulge with me!
God, I love this so much. This entire album is constructed so intelligently, with such a careful and deft eye and hand at composition. Every track is its own maelstrom, circling a dark aesthetic but approaching it once from doom's slower direction, once from death's unrelenting assault, and even from jazz's sleek, noir perspective. Check out "Skull Resonance" for all of those influences and more; its chaotic, tight spaces are fast becoming my favorite on this release.
A Body Is A Suggestion (what a killer title by the way) releases tomorrow, August 8th. Head on over to the project's Bandcamp above to pre-order it; you won't regret it.