ALBUM REVIEW: From Gold to Ash – Apostle of Solitude
Venturing into the depths of the underground can be one of the most fulfilling parts of being a metalhead. One minute you’re facing a full frontal death metal assault from the wildest regions of Scandinavia, the next you’re being taken on an expansive adventure by some of the most obscure prog bands that North America has to offer. With APOSTLE OF SOLITUDE, a relatively unknown doom-fuelled quartet from Indianapolis, the main experience you’re greeted with is one of foreboding unease and trepidation.
It’s evident that this is the band’s first album in four years, as despite the confident swagger there are a few rusty moments early on that take a while to get fully ironed out. Once these creases start to straighten however, there are some golden moments here that hint at a potentially glittering future. As with any good doom record there are also plenty of brooding, menacing passages on display, and it’s when the tempo changes are ditched in favour of crushing doom that this album is at its most interesting. It may sound strange to say that a record is at its best when it’s not taking as many risks, however it’s the sign of an accomplished band to know exactly what they’re good at and just focus on perfecting it, instead of throwing a plethora of ideas at a wall and hoping that something sticks.
That’s not to say that some of the deviation on offer here isn’t incredibly impressive, with some of the riffing on My Heart Is Leaving Here in particular proving to be one of the standout moments of the entire record. The rumbling intro to Overlord is also pierced through the middle with a spiky, serrated riff, and there’s a certain groove that seems intent on grabbing you by the scruff of the neck and carrying you off into the night.
By contrast, Ruination be Thy Name is quite simply a lumbering slab of doom, featuring clean vocals that give the record a more accessible feel than many in the genre. Autumn Moon provides a nice, if slightly out of place refrain from the suffocating melancholy, before the pace starts to slow on Keeping the Lighthouse. This gradual descent into slower territory is executed perfectly, increasing the intensity bit by bit until you start to become enveloped in a cloud of entrancing vocals, sparse drumbeats and hypnotic guitars. Monochrome and Grey Farewell build on this theme and take it to new, crushing lows, bringing the record to a close with suitably murky, oppressive heaviness and minimal forays into more experimental territories.
When all of these aspects are melded together, From Gold to Ash sounds like a record lost in time, as there are few hallmarks that identify it as a modern release. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing either, as it makes it feel closer to its origins and evokes a good deal of nostalgia for the stripped back style that was so prominent on the very earliest metal albums. To not mention BLACK SABBATH here would be a criminal omission, as the influences of Ozzy and co are not just worn on the sleeves of this band but embedded into their collective souls.
While this old school sound hits the mark more often than not, the production on this record is arguably also its biggest downfall, with the vocals often seeming too high in the mix and the rest of the band fading slightly too far into the background. This does in some ways increase the atmosphere of the album, however it also has a tendency to miss out on the opportunity to fully smother you in its dark embrace. Some of the more expansive moments do also tend to periodically lose their focus, drifting off on shoegaze-like tangents that unfortunately result in a real loss of intensity on more than one occasion. Even though these lapses are only momentary the album does then take a while to recover, and it’s this inconsistency that, while very minimal in the grand scheme of things, goes a long way to stopping this release being classed as great as opposed to just very good.
For a band still waiting for that big break however, ‘very good’ is far from a disparaging indictment and is more of a glowing endorsement of what APOSTLE OF SOLITUDE could become by using the ideas on offer here and building on them on future records. Embracing the funeral doom sound that is most apparent on Monochrome would be a perfect place to start, as it’s when the band slow things down to an almost glacial pace that their raw skill and talent for composition really shines through. All things considered, APOSTLE OF SOLITUDE are definitely a band to keep an eye on over the course of the next few years and, as with a lot of similar artists, they’re only really limited by their own imagination.
Rating: 7/10
From Gold to Ash is set for release on February 23rd via Cruz Del Sur Music.
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