Downfall Of Gaia - Atrophy (Metal Blade) 2016
7
With Atrophy being intended as “a record about the absurdity of life and of human existence”, it’s certain that it was never going to be a straightforward listen, nor a comfortable one. “Brood” is a ferocious opening gambit, a filth-caked wall of modern black metal that pulls few punches, but it’s the two-part centrepiece “Ephemerol” that stresses the ambition that has grown in this lot in the past two years. From its clarion beauty and sparse, mournful melodicism to the inevitable deluge of blastbeats and windswept tremolo that doesn’t so much revere its second wave forebears than challenge them to step outside, it’s an expertly executed slice of atmospheric black metal in an album that is positively drowning in them. Balancing subtlety and intensity is a tricky act but… Gaia have turned it into art.