ALBUM REVIEW: Wait ‘Til Night – Empress

What happens if you blend shoegaze, post-metal, ethereal singing and ambient textures? Well, you get something similar to Australia’s EMPRESS and their second album, Wait ‘Til Night. It’s become almost a trope in modern metal to eschew genre norms and make efforts to defy easy categorisation and EMPRESS are a sterling example of this. At once all their own, while remaining worlds away from the majority of others, their sound is best described as immersive, haunting and in parts, delicate.

Opener Golden Orb is initially sedate, a minimalist guitar lick before vocals slide in, clear and ethereal. The track encapsulates everything EMPRESS do succinctly; initially soaring vocals and soft instrumentation paired with heavier, often swirling guitar passages and harsher vocals that could strip walls. All this its tortured wails including the line “I will love you / Until we’re both dead”, Golden Orb is a stirring, emotionally riveting track that ensures Wait ‘Til Night starts strong. On the other side the sonic spectrum is Back To The Ground, an experimental and haunting piece consisting solely of vocals, ambient sounds akin to howling winds and minimalist drumming. It’s perhaps the least heavy tonally but the atmosphere and lyrics are dark, intent on dragging the listener into their gloomy depths.

The star of the show here is undoubtedly the vocals. Switching between sultry croons, ethereal notes and torturous howls, the performance is effortless and captivating. That’s not to belittle the other instruments either; the soundscapes conjured are both beautiful and harrowing. There’s a real sense of foreboding in the slow, menacing drumming and rumbling bass. Guitar licks, in keeping with the slower pace of much of the album, are never unnecessarily technical or showy, instead using crushing weight both in tone and emotion to convey the message such as on Scorpio Moon.

The halfway point of the album marks something of a shift from stormier moments (Golden Orb, Wait ‘Til Night) to more sedate, yet no less emotionally raw songs that bear their heart on their sleeves (Void Share Void, Where No Light Can Remain). The rawer, grittier vocals are less present here though do still make the occasional appearance. Instead, the songs rely more on their emotional depth and are less tumultuous. While calmer in one sense, they’re no less heavy. Curse starts softer but swells into a grandiose, gothic rocker toward the end with its towering crescendo before its softer end.

The production is clear and crisp, allowing every moment to breathe but without losing the sense of despair and near-claustrophobia EMPRESS conjure throughout. Songs, despite the prevailing melancholy, are never overlong, with eight songs and a total runtime of a hair under forty minutes. Songs never drag, even in the slowest moments or where drums drop out entirely to remove all sense of time.

It’s incredibly difficult to categorise exactly where EMPRESS sit with their sound, touching on elements as diverse as CHELSEA WOLFE, SÓLSTAFIR and moments of BLACK SABBATH when the band hit their doomiest strides. An intriguing prospect and only their second album, Wait ‘Til Night is a goth-tinged post-metal release with a show-stopping vocal performance that elevates it from good to truly intriguing.

Rating: 8/10

Wait ‘Til Night is set for release on November 20th via Brilliant Emperor Records.

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