ALBUM REVIEW: Auer – Marianas Rest
Finnish melodic doom sextet MARIANAS REST return with their fourth album Auer, just in time for their tenth anniversary as a band. Across that decade, they’ve firmly established themselves as ones to watch for all things melancholy and bleak. Here, they prove that death metal doesn’t have to be fast, doom doesn’t have to be slow, and that the extreme reaches of metal can live in stunning harmony.
Lead single Diseased revealed MARIANAS REST at their heaviest extent, folding in elements of black metal, doom and death metal and using dissonant feedback and creepy voice samples to create a chilling and contemptuous atmosphere. Jaakko Mäntymaa’s vocal performance is restless and wide-ranging, with crushing low roars and sizzling highs complementing the breakdowns and blast beats, which come to a head in the middle of the track as it feels like the walls around you are turning to dust. The Ground Still Burns feels similarly dangerous, growing from ominous piano melodies to a full-blown death-doom assault on the senses.
Having only released their debut album in 2016 – the fantastic Horror Vacui – MARIANAS REST have not been slacking. Not only is the work rate astounding, but to have folded the same amount of evolution into these seven years as bands have done throughout careers that span decades is not something to be sniffed at. While that debut bore comparisons to luminaries such as SWALLOW THE SUN or early AMORPHIS, Auer instead feels distinctly MARIANAS REST; already it feels like there are few – if any – bands who can showcase the same level of branching, blossoming and decaying as the likes of White Cradle or Fear Travels Fast exhibit.
It’s not all blustering heft and throwing their weight around though – Light Reveals Our Wounds displays a far more measured and melodic approach to their craft. The dual guitar work of Nico Mänttäri and Harri Sunila flits from whispering waifs to bellowing beasts with terrifying efficiency, while the keyboards of OMNIUM GATHERUM’s Aapo Koivisto underpin the work with a wicked dose of drama.
MARIANAS REST have also enlisted the help of MY DYING BRIDE’s Aaron Stainthorpe to close the album on Sirens. Sounding more like a song by the goth legends that has drafted the Finns in for a feature, the track puts Stainthorpe’s inimitable spoken drawl front and centre, which hauntingly creeps toward a cathartic release of sorrow and sadness. On an album that has been so tipped toward heaviness, these tracks really stand out, but also prove that MARIANAS REST are anything but a one-trick pony.
With Auer, MARIANAS REST prove once again that the Nordics really are the spiritual home of all things heavy. Effortless and resonant, this is an album that has an immediate effect and you can expect its fire-blackened, poison-dipped hooks to stay embedded within you for a long time to come. A special band with an already-impressive catalogue, it’s about time we see MARIANAS REST really get their time in the spotlight.
Rating: 8/10
Auer is out now via Napalm Records.
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