Altar Of Betelgeuze – Darkness Sustains the Silence Review

Doom is more often than not a genre that makes me feel drained and bored after listening to it. As a whole, it’s tends to be sluggish to the point of tediousness and the music itself is dull with nothing massively interesting about it. But Altar Of Betelgeuze are different and Darkness Sustains The Silence has a special something about it that results in it being a largely engaging listen.

It could well be down to the fantastic introduction, Epitaph. The extra bit of melody from the guitar solo placed on the slow driving section underneath really works in its favour and it results in the introduction grabbing your interest and it leads seamlessly into the first full-length track, which carries over the themes that began in Epitaph. It also features a standout vocal performance from singer Matias, with deep growling vocals and a haunting spoken section in the latter half of the track. It really is the perfect way to get the album going.

Things continue strongly from then on and the album is filled with great tracks – Out Of Control is a particular highlight, with it taking somewhat of a groove-based approach and it has some good melodic moments which complement the noiser guitars and vocals fantastically, but it has to be said that the album closer, which is also the title track, doesn’t make for a satisfying end.

At a whopping duration of seventeen and a half minutes, it’s a tremendous struggle to connect with the song because there are so many repeating ideas and it takes so long to get going that it’s nigh-on impossible to stay interested throughout. There are some good elements within it – the hammering guitars and drums at just past the three-minute mark are something to behold and the clean vocals a little later on are fantastic – but it’s a shame because it’s not a very satisfying end to an otherwise great album.

Still worth your time to check out, though.

8/10

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