ALBUM REVIEW: A Pilgrimage To Nowhere – Age Of The Wolf

AGE OF THE WOLF have already solidified themselves as a stomping fresh name in doom metal. Their debut Ouroboric Trances back in 2019 was a brilliant taste of what they may have in store. With a cataclysmic couple of years to stew on ideas, the Costa Rican four-piece return with their sophomore record A Pilgrimage To Nowhere.

The album gets off to a smouldering start with a growling, stalking bassline introducing The Searing Eye. The calm, watchful melody blooms into a cascading, doom-laden riff. The title is a brilliant personification of the whole tone of the song; from the bellowed and rumbling vocals, the shifts from daggers to a menacing glance, you never feel free of the glare and malevolence of this entity.

There’s plenty of wicked, mean and sludgy doom metal on offer on A Pilgrimage To Nowhere. A beautiful transition into Thundering Epochs leads to some smooth groove that feels perfect for this early into the record. Barking snares, sharp as hell rhythms and entrancing vocals shift and turn over and over from bouncing melodies to wailing guitars. It’s a packed four or so minutes, that leads excellently into Onward To Penumbra which encompasses the very best of the post-metal sludge that AGE OF THE WOLF can create, bouncy while feeling rich and fearsome.

There are some more subdued moments on this record, however, with mid-album tune Doomhex providing some sinister atmospherics with deep background swells and leisurely snaps of the drums. The melody is entrancing as ever, but its initial harmless tinkering and twiddling descends into a harmony of menacing, old school doom twin guitars. Next, the interlude A Multiplicity Of Causalities is a strange, synth glitch of a moment that almost doesn’t quite fit with the strictly guitar driven record, but it leans into that psychedelic feel of the album and is a nice few seconds to break things up.

Thankfully, there’s once again a very heavy doom focus through Nexus Exitium (Pyrophylaciorum). It’s somewhere between MASTODON and BLACK SABBATH and beautifully plays around with complexities and simplicities with what a doom soundscape can be. The aspects of constantly churning arpeggios and instant shifts to hard chugging feel thrilling. However, there’s a real emotionally engaging middle section, with stunningly arranged guitars and psychedelic vocals that add so much more to what was already a solid track and makes it phenomenal.

Conjuration Of The Obsidian Colossus is exceptional, maintaining brutish vocals, odd time changes and a consistently dense sound that feels oppressive and claustrophobic. As the album draws to a close, it’s evident that The Phantom Electric is the towering behemoth of the record, a nine-minute journey through a swathe of dark psychedelic ideas. Shifting from plodding stomping to raging fuzz, this is a piece of work filled with spellbinding riffs, booming vocals, dizzying drums. It’s a cacophony of monstrous tones, a huge amount of doom that feels so devilishly good.

With another massive record under their belt, AGE OF THE WOLF have once again pummelled a fresh sense of excitement into the doom scene. Perfectly balanced between classic, heavy metal style doom, psychedelic sludge and contemporary post metal, all tied together in some very clever arrangements, A Pilgrimage To Nowhere is one of the best doom records the year thus far.

Rating: 9/10

A Pilgrimage To Nowhere is set for release on May 19th via Sleeping Church Records.

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