ALBUM REVIEW: Indistinct Beacon – Gavran
Everything has been a bit bleak over the past few years. Irrevocably so at some points, though that’s not news to anyone. And yet amidst the torrent of misery and sadness, there have been things that have thrived. Zoom had a banner year, Netflix subscription numbers went through the roof, and who didn’t become an expert at Mario Kart? And within the realm of heavy music, it seems that doom and sludge has made the most of the morose. We’ve been increasingly treated to some of the genre’s greatest new entries and the growth seen has been nothing short of mesmeric, with the likes of legends AMENRA and 40 WATT SUN upping their own ante amongst stiff competition from upstarts like CONJURER and TUSKAR.
Another new entry came in the form of Dutch trio GAVRAN, whose 2020 debut album Still Unavailing displayed solid discipline of their chosen genre and spotlit them as ones to watch. Returning now with Indistinct Beacon, the Rotterdam natives have made it clear that they can hang with the big guns with a wide-ranging and staunchly impressive release that amplifies everything they were already doing so well the first time around.
What really sets GAVRAN‘s sound apart from their contemporaries and presumed idols is their supreme ability to meld and merge crushing devastation with clean splendour. Take the opening track Dvorac for example, wherein the instrumentation rumbles thunderously and vocalist/drummer Jamie Kobić pierces through with brutal roars before he opts instead for a far cleaner sound closer to the psych-doom realm of ELDER. But the intensity never lets up and the track sweeps you up in its clutches, barrelling you through sonic wall after sonic wall, battering you with everything that it’s got. The band’s ability to switch between terrorizing and haunting is simply spellbinding.
Dim soon follows as a brasher beast still, lurching forth with a horrid air of malcontent and malevolence. The clean vocals are folded deeper into the mix to give an ethereal edge to the stunning heft of the instrumentation before the track’s back half collapses in on itself with the weight of a dying star, destroying all it surveys. Meanwhile Duhovi provides the album with its most expansive monolith. It’s a towering juggernaut that starts as a wistful collection of softly strummed chords and winds up delivering the album’s most cathartic and emotional climax. GAVRAN are phenomenal storytellers in their music and this is one track that ought to be heard by anybody with a passing interest in the sludge and doom genres.
When life gives you lemons, you can always count on high quality music to pick you back up. Whether it’s making you feel heard and vindicated, or letting you thrash it out with chunky riffs, you can find something to match your mood or improve it. GAVRAN have made the sweetest lemonade though and deliver everything you need with wicked aplomb. Had this come out earlier in the year, it’d be well in with a shout for end-of-year lists. This is one not to be missed.
Rating: 9/10
Indistinct Beacon is out now via Dunk!records.
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