ALBUM REVIEW: An End to Rumination- Treurwilg

TREURWILG release second album An End to Rumination, which mulls on sombre broodings of hell and loneliness. There’s a leaning into the funeral doom elements of their previous record, Departure, but what will that form in the end result?

A slow and brooding start bring us in with The Fragility of Mankind. The reverberating guitar relays under the spoken word opening, before blasting into a muted, guttural rhythm of drums and fuzzed up guitars. The erratic beat of that thick tone makes your head feel like sponge being squeezed at an unfathomable pace, which thankfully gives way to a more relaxed melody. The vocals leave things a little cold, the passion behind the growling throaty scream seems lacking, and overall, it’s not as impactful as it could be, however the music itself carries the weight of the track.

In the Ruin And Misery blends straight in off the back of the previous track, slow and tempered. This is a record that wants to take its time, creating space to allow the hollow feelings of doom and sorrow fester. There’s a big sound, with monster tones and heavy ideas behind every beat. This is a sombre outing for sure, with shimmering moments of quiet that pair with the bigger moments that build and fall. At just over twelve minutes, this is a real contemplative track, but might be a little bare bones until it’s closing four or so minutes to keep everyone’s engagement.

At a slightly shorted nine minutes thirty, Myosotis sets the pace much more urgently, a simmering snare and high hat covering the rhythm as the buzzing guitar tones take over once again. The vocals find their place better there, sparingly used and with much more emotive presence in their delivery. As the final ending of Myosotis calls back to another pondering spoken word quote, we lead directly into I, a much heavier track that has a lot more melodic interest, crashing symbols, dynamic guitars that slink into the depths of doom and death metal. It’s a shame that it’s taken to this point to find the most interesting point, as the run time of some of the previous tracks just isn’t warranted on the amount of emotional return you get for your time. Here, however, things are much more intense and satisfying.

Shallow Pools of Grief soars in on aching bends and slamming chords, weighty and droning, taking the absolute extremes of doom to dreary places before swinging back into a more consistent pacing. There’s a few interesting melodic choices in here, and overall things move along with a sense of purpose and heft, the hulking nature of the music finally making it’s impact. The final minute of solo piano, lonely and sorrowful, play out the final quote, which feels poignant enough, but these spoken word sections lack a real connection through to the album’s emotional pull.

It’s unfortunate that the beginning part of the record takes so much time setting itself up, as there are some nice moments that call back through the darkness and some good ideas that pull you back into the depths of despair. However, overall there’s just something lacking, a sense of true loss that doesn’t hit. The sparseness of such lengthy portions of each track leaves a lot of time feeling wasted rather than contemplative. Nevertheless, there’s good effort here from TREURWILG and a desire to make something earnest which can be appreciated.

Rating: 7/10

An End to Rumination is out now via self release.

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