ALBUM REVIEW: Somnus – Splendidula

Belgium’s SPLENDIDULA are a band that embraces doom in all its musical forms, from sludge to stoner rock, and, as you’d expect, their sound is incredibly heavy and eclectic as a result. Their first two records, 2013’s eponymous full-length and 2018’s Post Mortem, showed a band that with tonnes of potential who hadn’t quite managed to develop their own sound and style so early on in their career. Their latest album, Somnus, finally sees the band’s myriad influences finally coalesce into a varied melting pot of excellent, captivating music, resulting in their greatest and most impressive output to date.

Somnia, with its massive guitars and sludgy bass hooks, is a great start to the record. The contrast between the thicker rhythms, haunting vocals and sharp, minimalist riffs creates a vast atmosphere right out of the gate, which suits the dramatic vocal performance incredibly well. The hazy solo in the middle of the track lends a great, classic Rock feel to the proceedings, something that makes it a strong opening effort.

Void, one of the album’s shorter offerings, blends a punishing, borderline industrial undercurrent with grating guitars and coarse gutturals, giving this an aggressive feel. The synths provide plenty of depth, from dirge-like industrial elements to soaring, spacey moments, ebbing and flowing between styles in a similar way to the guitars on the preceding track, resulting in a track that is extremely interesting and varied. Incubus incorporates everything from growls to spoken word to angelic cleans into the vocal deliveries, which oftentimes carry this track as a result. The music itself isn’t without it’s appeal though; bringing in subtle acoustic passages and heady synths, there’s a diverse range of influences to break up the monstrous doom components that have characterised this album up until now.

Oculus, another brief affair, has a magnificent, expansive sound and a drawn out pace that makes it feel monolithic, with harsh, shrieking vocals, an exceptionally muscular bassline and a melodic, post-metal inspired guitar sound making it dark and grand in equal parts. Drocht takes the murky sound and duelling vocals of the last track, and applies them to meatier, denser rhythms, with the with the bass, guitars and drums adding a primitive, forceful groove to the music, over which the harsh and clean vocals vie with each other for attention. The addition of a great solo also serves to break up the songs fiercer moments, adding a little melody to what is otherwise a weighty, domineering sound.

The album’s zenith, When God Comes Down, is a gargantuan song that is, if anything, a more layered and eclectic than the already imaginative earlier tracks. Its slow-burning opening shows an intricate approach to the guitars and drums, with the vocals and bass interwoven in amongst, creating a varied sound that allows for plenty of impressive hooks on all fronts. As it gathers momentum, adopting a cavernous sound with some great, hypnotic guitar work that makes this track even more beguiling, the songs heavier side is finally unleashed in the closing minutes, adding the exclamation point to this epically cinematic offering.

One of this album’s biggest strengths is the way that it manages to draw influence from a variety of sub-genres of doom, providing elements that should appeal to die hard fans of the genre whilst simultaneously injecting plenty of progressive flourishes into the mix, such as the subtle electronic parts on Somnia or the Industrial motifs on Void, which, although they don’t get as much if an airing as they should, still sets this album, and this band, apart from many of their contemporaries.

The dramatic sound of the album as a whole makes it even easier to get drawn into the music, with each track contributing to the album’s overall strength rather than going unnoticed. SPLENDIDULA have well and truly found their sound with Somnus, and with any luck their next record will be able to match this one in terms of sheer musical range.

Rating: 9/10

Somnus is out now via Argonauta Records.

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