The Crypts of the Unknown harbors many festered treasures. Have you ever come across an album that you enjoy, but seemingly no other human in existence knows about it? Or maybe an album that ticks all the boxes in a style that doesn’t get a lot of love? Oh, and of course, you’ve found this album long after it would have mattered to help the band spread the word… or perhaps it’s just your dirty little secret…
Whatever the case, we here at Goat Review prefer to air our loves to the world, to open the gates of our corroded Crypts to the masses. Today, join us as Metalligator reminisces on Loss’s 2017 release Horizonless. It may not be perfect, but how would you know?
Fun Doom is a challenging genre for me. I think I’ve only ever found two, maybe three albums I love in the genre and this is one of them. Horizonless sweats a mournful atmosphere from its every pore, as is usual for the genre. What sets it apart, however, is a knack for knowing when to develop and/or speed up a song. Opener “The Joy of All Who Sorrow” showcases this right out of the gate with a simple riff that evokes the starry sky of the album cover. It goes through moments of quiet and uproar, relying on goth-inspired bass line to carry it before it erupts after a whopping eight minute build in a huge moment of shouted vocals, screams, and increasing speed. It’s a fascinating start to a fascinating album.
Loss disperses throughout Horizonless interludes that build atmosphere. Usually skeptical about these, here I instead think they help vary the content so that the proper songs do not blend together. This is not to say that the songs sound the same but they all carry the same tone. “Naught” starts out with a somber piano led melody before developing into a slow guitar driven affair that sounds like a cry for help. The title track breaks out in a moment of folksy clean singing that recalls Agalloch, of all possible influences. Closer “When Death is All” showcases some surprisingly somber Americana-like moments translated into doomy guitar playing. No matter the track, Horizonless is heavy and downtrodden but knows when to switch things up. The emotional melodies and surprisingly good bass plying that often cuts through the gloom have stayed with me since it released in 2017. Loss seem to take their time between albums and if it is because they reach this kind of result, I’ll be there in a heartbeat next time they visit us.
