ALBUM REVIEW: Earthtorn – Drift Into Black

DRIFT INTO BLACK‘s new album Earthtorn continues the New Jersey trio’s high intensity release schedule, and is their fourth album in just the last five years. Existing within the prog doom realm and drawing extra input from ambient and traditional heavy metal, these aren’t flighty records that come and go, and this new offering is a sprawling concept album lasting the best part of an hour. 

The ten tracks of Earthtorn chronicle the story of extra terrestrial life coming to Earth, disguising as a human, learning of humanity’s past transgressions, finding love, watching that love cruelly die, and then leaving Earth to let it all fall into decay as some form of penance. Pretty heavy fare then, and an engrossing concept that touches upon every aspect of human life, both the good and the bad.

Starting with a montage of real world news reports on modern day tragedies and escalating conflicts, DRIFT INTO BLACK waste no time in getting into the nitty gritty of 21st Century existence and the perils that have come with it. There’s something to be said for how narrow the scope of this opening sequence is though, falling back on clips of the same event several times, rather than taking something from all different crises and attacks civilisation has faced. Nevertheless, it sets the scene suitably enough, and launches into It Fell From The Sky which is a grand rock opera of a song, combining synths and wistful vocals with steadily building guitars and machine gun fire drumming. Turning on its head, the band swan-dive into death growls and blast beats, lending a dangerous edge to their sound that helps to fully encapsulate both the intrigue and the terror of life on Earth. 

The March To Oblivion is a lumbering beast of a number, starting life as a hefty slab of doom before devolving into folk-laced classic metal that evokes stories around a campfire some years after these events have come to pass. Meanwhile album closer Mankind is an instrumental piece that leans more within the symphonic metal grounds and features some keen keyboard work in place of vocals. The story is told and now the rest of time is left to play out with wonder and despair.

Frustratingly, that engrossing concept never quite leaves the page in the way you hoped it would when you first read about it. All the romance, the drama, the tragedy, all the conflict, loyalty and betrayal, it’s all handled without the care and attention such a heavy story would need. Lyrically, everything feels very on the nose and the topics are breached with all the nuance of a sledgehammer. Suddenly, a story that should be drawing the listener in and weaving this rich tapestry is relegated to a plodding chore of a listen, carelessly strewn over the instrumentals.

Musically, the outlook is somewhat more enjoyable, from the atmospheric ambience of Ghost On The Shore to the Geddy Lee/RUSH-esque stylings of On Borrowed Time. But their insistence on going to so many different corners of those old school metal subgenres results in an unfocused melting pot that struggles to retain attention. By shoehorning so much into each song, DRIFT INTO BLACK do themselves a disservice across these ten tracks where the same formulas are repeated ad infinitum.

From a promising outlook, Earthtorn manages to be a pedestrian, meandering end product that struggles to deliver on the most appealing aspects of this concept album. DRIFT INTO BLACK clearly have the hunger and the drive to deliver something great. Maybe this one could have stayed on the mothership.

Rating: 4/10

Earthtorn is out now via Black Lion Records.

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