ALBUM REVIEW: Murmurations – Everest Queen

EVEREST QUEEN took a sledgehammer to an unsuspecting scene with their 2019 debut Dead Eden; three years later, they return with Murmurations, an album that despite its quieter implications, shows the band finding their voice and using it louder than ever. Where Dead Eden dwelled predominantly in sludge, Murmurations pushes ever further into post-metal, along with fuzzy, even psychedelic territories. It’s an expansion on their sonic palette that draws as much on psychedelic doom in the vein of ELDER as it does ISIS’ seismic post-metal. 

Opener Sunken Thorn is nine and a half minutes of monolithic riffs and glass-gargling screams, though its beginning is far more unassuming. Tribal drum patterns and esoteric guitars weave together, coalescing in a barrage of doom riffs a la CONAN before a distorted lead passage breaks out. So far, so sludgy; but EVEREST QUEEN are far from a one trick pony. Of Treachery And Shadow draws on drone for its opening moments, a repeated guitar pattern underscored by rumbling bass, and then unfurls into something akin to space rock if it were dragged through the Louisiana swamps. 

Given the long-form compositions (Murmurations is 45 minutes long and just six songs) it’s critical that EVEREST QUEEN inject some level of variety into their writing, and they’re clearly aware of that. The aforementioned Of Treachery And Shadow is an instrumental for its opening half but draws on the textured approach of a band like MOUNTAIN CALLER to create something just a compelling without words, and by the time the vocals enter around the halfway mark, it feels like the right time for a change, rather than rushed, or worse, like the previous passage was too drawn out. 

The title track itself is the shortest song on the album, at just three and a half minutes, and acts more like an introspective journey, the bass fading out before its final ambient minute of hissing static and unsettling samples. The second half of the album keeps this introspective flavour, with Dormant River deftly balancing a soft opening against the deluge it becomes later. There’s an almost AMENRA flavour to it, particularly the cathartic shrieks, though it doesn’t ever come close to the gargantuan emotional heft the Belgians conjure.

Where EVEREST QUEEN succeed most is that melding of sludge with an almost CULT OF LUNA-esque wall of sound; towering guitars, thunderous bass and drums that combine with howls and shrieks but channelled through a lens of almost psychedelia, like a bad acid trip in which one’s own flaws are laid bare and brought into stark relief. It’s fitting, given the more personal slant of some themes, even when the album feels so sonically expansive. Despite its sprawling, tectonic plate shifting heaviness, there’s still delicate ambience to be found, as unsettling as it may be, that allows Murmurations to hang together far more cohesively without ever feeling too much, or overbearing in its weight. It’s a significant step up from Dead Eden and further underscores their name as one of the UK’s most promising sludge acts. 

Rating: 7/10

Murmurations is out now via Trepanation Recordings.

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