Back in the day when we were reckoning with the rise of big, excessive progressive and technical death metal, there used to be a term used in Heavy Blog circles. It was used to describe that sort of elation you get from this style of music, the overwhelming buoyancy that seemed to come from inside of you on especially satisfying licks, grand vocals passages, or the overwhelming, blast-beat heavy crescendo of a track. It was called "whoosh". We even tried to define it a few times on the blog, to varying degrees of success. Because the style is somewhat in decline (though definitely still around), I haven't thought of whoosh in ages. But I was immediately reacquainted with it when I listened to Iapetus' latest release, The Mother Void.
Clocking in at over an hour, The Mother Void very much belongs to that movement of death metal which I described above and it most definitely relies on whoosh. There's just that feeling when the blast-beats are going hard, the vocals are sweeping and grandiose, and the guitar riffs are crashing around you. It feels like you are out of breath and your heart is really big and your stomach wants to fly with the birds. Whoosh. But what am I describing this for? You can just tune into the third track on The Mother Void, "Aniara". Yes, that Aniara. The seventeen minutes and change track makes extensive use of this sort of elation by blending in the sweet, melancholy vocals of one Fabienne Erni (Eluveitie, Illumishade) with the band's intricate-yet-heavy version of death metal.
In fact, this has always been the band's modus operandi and was especially at the core of their 2019 release, The Body Cosmic. Iapetus are adept masters at writing technical, intricate, but above all melodic and heartfelt progressive death metal. This brings me to my main criticism of the album: it is definitely Iapetus and it definitely stays within the boundaries of what we've come to understand that means. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad by any means. Just like The Body Cosmic, it is a powerful and well made album. In fact, it is an upgraded version of it, with bigger compositions, production by one Jens Bogren, and just more of everything. But that's it: it's more of everything we've already gotten from the band and I can't help but wonder if there is more out there that the Iapetus lads could do.
It's not really fair, right? Like I said earlier, I find this style of death metal to be in decline. But maybe you disagree with me; it seems that Iapetus certainly do. And that's great! If more whoosh (or however you want to call that feeling) is what you want, this album has it in heaps. But I know that Iapetus has more to give; I hear it in the denser, more melodic tracks like "Red Giant" or in the darker, ethereal, middle passages of "TON". There is an even more ambitious version of Iapetus out there, one which has a different thematic to it, and appeals to a different emotion and approach than whoosh. And I would really like to hear it. For now, we will make do with The Mother Void and you know what? We will rejoice with it because it really is some excellently written and made progressive death metal. For now, this will more than suffice. But perhaps there is something else on the horizon? Time will tell.