EP REVIEW: Generational Warfare – Destroyer of Light

Back in May 2019 Austin doom metal quartet DESTROYER OF LIGHT released their third full-length album Mors Aeterna, a unique take on the doom metal genre featuring beautifully soaring, entrancing singing from vocalist (and guitarist) Steve Colca, fuzzy guitars, and droning atmosphere, all combined with some classic occult doom-metal elements. After a year, the band returns with a release of a two-track EP Generational Warfare featuring their rendition of THE CURE’s Lullaby, in which DESTROYER OF LIGHT expand upon their densely melancholic, doom sound in spectacular fashion. For it is with this new EP that DESTROYER OF LIGHT have gone a step forward by bettering their song arrangement skills their song-writing abilities and dialed up both the pathos and atmosphere to the fullest.

This EP’s mood and atmosphere are both passionately engaging and movingly despondent. It creates this strange, spine-tingling sensation, of being submerged in an endless sea of mournful sounds as you slowly make your way through the recording’s soundscapes. The colour-palette of this musical lake appears chromatically homogeneous, but in reality contains a far more diverse showcase of tints, some representing a deep melancholy or hopelessness, some a feeling of consolation or extreme purification. Nevertheless, the atmosphere on the two-tracker is eternally drenched in this nonchalant darkness which remains ever-present throughout the two tunes. The song structures and arrangements perfectly serve to accentuate these emotional elements. Similar to Mors Aeterna, the songs on Generational Warfare come through as extensive and meander constantly. Yet compositionally speaking, this EP feels more lively and instantaneous: lurching, almost trudging builds will all of a sudden transition into swirling crescendos. This makes the emotional uncertainties of the songs all the more discernible.

The instrumentation on Generational Warfare is certainly worthy of praise. Both the guitar tone and guitar playing by Colca and Keegan Kjeldsen on this EP are excellent. The riffs can be slow, misty and forcefully heavy or pleasantly melodic, suitably accompanying the EP’s mood and atmosphere. What they do best however, is capture the emotional frame of mind as their strings sagaciously tremble along while the songs seamlessly drift through its many musical routes. They can sound melodically peaceful or colossally relentless, perfectly accompanying the temperament of Colca’s vocals. The fuzzy, distorted bass of Nick Coffman and the pummelling drums, courtesy of Penny Turner, easily keep up and play along with this musical escapade. As with their last full-length, DESTROYER OF LIGHT also do not shy away from adding a little instrumental alternative here and there, especially on THE CURE cover.

Ultimately, DESTROYER OF LIGHT have come up with an absolutely impressive EP with two astonishingly textured, compact and dynamic songs that are also curiously diverse. 

Rating: 8/10

Generational Warfare is out on March 27th via Heavy Friends Records.

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