ALBUM REVIEW: Rotten Human Kingdom – Subterraen

Is there a sub-genre of metal that feels more like the weighty, miserable year of 2020 than doom? Our present moment is one of a great uncertainty and despair, as the triple-pronged threat of social unrest, a global pandemic and the encroaching threat of irreversible climate change have all begun to suddenly feel very real. On Rotten Human Kingdom, Nantes’ SUBTERRAEN channel this apocalyptic angst into four quite brilliant blackened-doom tracks, each one a mini cataclysm in and of itself.

Rotten Human Kingdom’s focus is on, according to the band; “narrating epic, anguish-ridden tales of the slow destruction of the planet.” While the lyrics are mostly indecipherable, as delivered through the pained, shrieking howls of vocalist Hlvt, SUBTERRAEN still more than manage to convey their intentions. Doom metal is the perfect sub-genre to relay these themes, given its resemblance to what the eco-philosopher Timothy Morton has termed ‘hyperobjects’. A hyperobject is something so massive, either literally or conceptually, that it cannot be seen directly, and transcends spatiotemporal specificity. It could be an oil field, or all of the nuclear material that’s ever existed on Earth, or, most presciently; global warming.

Doom metal replicates much of what defines a hyperobject. It’s ‘viscous’; in that it sticks to and envelops the listener with the scale of its presence. It strives to become ‘non-local’, as it tends to be epic in scope and grand in its sprawl. And perhaps most crucially; it seems to exist in a different temporality, through its drawn-out, droning construction, almost generating its own sense of relativity and scale. SUBTERRAEN smartly tune into this mode of thinking, crafting music that is all-encompassing and vast, practically unfathomable in its sense of scale.

Blood For The Blood Gods contains a real sense of movement, shifting from an opening that resembles an ice shelf calving into a middle section of great momentum. It sounds like something encroaching, a threat slowly but inexorably appearing in your purview. The back half of the track then gradually becomes subtly melodic, almost mournful, eulogistic. This focus on emotive melodicism rarely recurs on Rotten Human Kingdom, only returning for the quiet interlude of Oceans Are Rising, which is serene, delicate and disarmingly pretty.

For A Fistful Of Silver features the album’s most overtly black metal-inflected section. This genre mashup makes thematic sense, given black metal’s often earthy, elemental bent (think of WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM or PANOPTICON). SUBTERRAEN manage to sustain the riff-driven pace of the track until it eventually collapses under its own weight, leading into a noisy, despairing final stretch that recalls the harsh misery of PRIMITIVE MAN. Closing track Wrath Of A Downtrodden Planet further channels this mode of despair. A true behemoth, its physical, sludgy first ten minutes drags and drags, testing the endurance of the listener before breaking into a grandiose, punishing closing section. 

What’s so smart about SUBTERRAEN’s melding of ecological philosophy and harsh, monumental doom metal is that it aesthetically contextualises the lengthy run times and gradual structural shifts so integral to the genre. The music resembles something shifting, not abruptly or immediately noticeably, but something that is nonetheless becoming different to what it was. This synchronisation of form and theme is hugely impressive, and makes Rotten Human Kingdom a powerful, troubling listen.

Rating: 9/10

Rotten Human Kingdom is out now via Transcending Obscurity Records.

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