by Janet Willis
Simply put, bands like The Sullen Route are very few and far between these days.
Their sound is somewhere between the more melodic and dark instrumental traits of Isis, and a uniquely delicate balance between their own debut’s surreal and intricate doom/death funereal atmospheres. On Apocalyclinic the band is less suffocating and abysmal, and leaves a lot of room to breathe although I can honestly say that they still maintain the musical embodiment of their name. The album as a whole makes me feel as if I’ve just abandoned society and it’s contentions and trekked off into the void destined to wander aimlessly in solitude, but more for an intellectual reason and enlightenment journey versus simply abandoning life and heading for self-inflicted misery.
The rhythms are very loose, slightly proggy/mathy, but still managing to avoid post-metal altogether in a way that keeps them distinctly dark and metal, that is PURELY metal (… had to add that in for those that have a weak stomach for the so-called “weaker” and dare say “prettier” forms of METAL).
Overall the best way to describe Apocalyclinic is to say that it plays out the ideas of solitude and searching through sadness for something better versus the expected suicidal, frustrated, hopeless, and desperate ill-fated themes that go with “solitude” and “sadness” inspired creations. The vocals still maintain a hint of the painsokaed and deliberate impact of artists like Evoken, then there’s some raspy almost spoken word vocal parts that act almost as “clean”, but never do they stray away from the grim and intense style expected. The solo/melodic guitar work is so clean in places that it really triggers a respectful awe alongside a deep-rooted internal response to the mood they create. Even the riffs crash down in a skull shattering delivery upon the listener creating this inescapable force of being sucked into the vast blackness of where no standard soul would ever venture by choice.
The heavy steel laid down to open the opener, “Hysteria” gets you innervated for something anthemic and powerful than keeps it going strong with hints of the dark melodic prog metal of say Porcupine Tree, and I’d even say that there’s some definite similarities to bands like Russian Circles/Isis/Red Sparrows present. But even with the melodic and emotional tinge, the heart of this song and the album is absolutely bleeding and turning to stone over time, it’s gloom metal as opposed to Doom metal.
“Burial Ground” is a melodic and down-tuned bulldozer pure and simple. Aside from the chugging, sometimes shredding riffs, the band still manages to not only have this haunting western/desert guitar melody behind the mix that brings to mind more of a vision of a graveyard in the middle of Death Valley, with an interesting and yet unknown history to it. It has some “The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly” in it, but the way the band lays it down without ever going too “emo” or technical really captures the listener in the saga that is the song itself and drowns them as a result. Songs like “Dune” even have a killer steel/slide guitar intro that aids in the experience of wandering through the desert, which is what you really feel as if you’re doing as you listen to this album through it’s entirety. It’s a very “lost in the American desert along a dusty and barren highway” envisioning track with a hearty dose of great metal riffing and arpeggiated technicality.
So in summary, this is a masterful and unique experience that shows how an already solid band can continue to evolve as can metal and it’s sub-genres into something timeless instead of being yet another white elephant. Most of us have such little cash to burn on buying everything that comes out, so why buy more albums of the same old shit when you can get something (singular) that you will actually enjoy and remember… it makes more cents, doesn’t it?
Fans of: Evoken, Solitude Aeturnus, Isis, While Heaven Wept, Mirror of Deception.
