[As new blood turns to old, a familiar sound lures it into the depths of fat and stinky riffs. May words be enough for this entity to come to life?]
The second a band chooses to use a Lewandowski painting for their cover, they set a certain expectation. Ever since his association with Bell Witch’s seminal funeral doom album, Mirror Reaper, this decision implies a certain confidence in quality. Detroit’s own Pillar of Light should know this. With the quiet-loud formula brought to bear on their debut album, Caldera, they make the case that they earn this monolithic cover through sheer emotional heft.
While Pillar of Light name drop Neurosis and Amenra in their promo, and describes their sound as sludge/post-metal, it is doom’s oppressive weight that towers over Caldera. Roaring vocals propel the dirge-like riffs forward, interspersed with quieter passages I would characterize more as post-rock than post-metal in the way they build to crescendos of explosive amp worship. The band even brings themselves into a nice groove occasionally, like in the latter half of “Spared”. These are not headbanging doom riffs for the most part though, Pillar of Light prefer to sit in the dour, glacial paced melancholy of Warning or Swallow the Sun. All of these elements tied together with neat little synth flourishes and harmonized guitar leads that guide you from crushing riff to gentle interlude.
Yet as a whole, Caldera’s pieces don’t synergize in a way that compels me to pick this record over another mournful slab of doom. Pillar of Light’s reliance on a nearly uniform tempo does create a nice consistency, but also hurts their ability to differentiate Caldera’s various sections. The occasional forays into cleaner vocals come across more like spoken word than singing and feel out of place. Furthermore, while the roaring vocal style does complement the tone of the guitars well, something more pained or varied could help sell the underlying emotion of the lyrics and music.
But don’t let these mild critiques of Caldera put you off. Fans of emotional, crushing and post influenced doom will find much to love here. The areas I see for improvement should only indicate a band on the cusp of delivering an excellent, maybe even definitive record. For any band that would be a huge compliment. For a debut album, Caldera is exciting and impressive. I for one will be the first in line to hear what Pillar of Light bring us next.
