On first glance New Catastophism could look like a very one note dredging drone release, but if you descend below the surface you’ll find a beautifully textured album with a lot to discover. I’m pretty fascinated by the language of music, where interpretation can vary greatly from person to person. What are the rules for encapsulating a certain feeling if there are any? The opener “Mortichnia” starts off the record in a very quiet and brooding pace in reference to its name, which is a term for the last walk of a living creature. A “death march” that has been found preserved as fossil footprints by ancient sea creatures. When I hear “Mortichnia”, I see a road with heatwaves rising from the ground, the image might be evoked by the wavering guitar layers coupled with the outdrawn tonal landscape created by the synthesizers. I sense danger reflected in the slightly alarm-like signals wailing ominously in the mix. If this is an attempt at expressing a march of death it is pretty effective, later in the track you can also hear a quiet lament from a distant choir.
Following the death march comes “The Glare is Everywhere and Nowhere Our Shadow”, presumably referencing an article written by Maxim Gorky called “Boredom”. Here we’re drawn further down into the depths of despair, which the music reflects masterfully with its subdued screams and ruinous humming guitars. At this point some listeners might possibly be worn out by the suffocating atmosphere but the build-up to “Incomplete Map of Voids” is very important for the expression of the record as a whole. It wouldn’t create the same sense of relief if the first two tracks were shorter. The time spent in the low droning sadness contrasts the heavenly and hopeful melancholy of track three perfectly.
The last track on the album “Cenotaph to the Final Glacier” introduces a seemingly new soundscape to the lineup. Ritualistic, with its insistent drums and swirling guitars. But in the background there’s still a low and pressing synthesizer signal, maybe to musically reflect a constant reminder of the imminent death that everything faces, both animal, human and glacier. We all move closer to our own separate ends every second as time marches forward.
