By:
Ernesto Aguilar
Album Type: Full length
Date Released: 15/11/2017
Label: Transcending Obscurity
Jupiterian
melds sludge undertones to an oppressive landscape, making it feel all the more
like a slow autopsy video – you know what it is, and what may happen, but you
cannot stop it or look away. Jupiterian
leaves little doubt about the importance of this release for its subgenre this
year.
"Terraforming" CD//DD//LP track listing
1.
Matriarch
2.
Unearthly Glow
3.
Forefathers
4.
Terraforming (ft. Maurice de Jong of GNAW THEIR TONGUES)
5.
Us and Them
6.
Sol
The Review:
You
can never quite avoid how much doom depends on the climate an artist creates.
The music can be dirge like or plodding, the themes of those songs can be bleak
and the theater of the artists can likewise invoke awe. Doom reaches such a
select fan base, the artists must work especially diligently to capture
attention.
In
Brazil's Jupiterian, the listener discovers a group
that has decided to go for an anonymous, masked visage. Many metal performers
have utilized coverings, face paint or other means to obscure their identities
and grab attention for the art as an entity rather than the players as focal
points. Such is an important strategy in metal; it is a rejection of the
star-obsessed popular culture that transcends borders. For doom acts, this
decision is notably crafty. With a smaller pool of people into the music, a
group must find any means to grab people. The less charitable may call such
artisanship gimmickry. Connoisseurs of this wing of metal appreciate a band's
commitment to its own backstory.
For
any such outfit, including Jupiterian, such
choices put attention on the music that could press upon it more scrutiny than
might otherwise be aimed. With "Terraforming," the band's newest,
critical ears are sure to go away happy.
Subtitling
its recording "Atmospheric Doom/Sludge Metal," Jupiterian fulfills those audacious expectations by
grinding out some of the better atmospheric doom you will hear this year. The
quartet begins with "Matriarch,"
a song whose creepy percussion into synths and deep drumming summon gloomy
spirits. It is those guitars, though, followed by harrowing vocals, which seal
the deal. Jupiterian melds sludge undertones to this
oppressive landscape, making it feel all the more like a slow autopsy video –
you know what it is, and what may happen, but you cannot stop it or look away. "Unearthly Glow" comes on
that cut's heels, and it is even more weighty and deliberate.
What
makes Jupiterian so enthralling is how it is able
to expand what you think of atmospheric doom. By the third song, "Forefathers," you hear a
more traditional doom sound, yet its start is more of a transition from the
previous atmospheric selections. The musicianship is incredible, and how well
this song fits with the ones before as well as the successive title track
(complete with spacey opening) is a testament to just how gifted Jupiterian is with its music. You get more well-planned
with "Us and Them." The
song has acoustic guitar additions to its start, though it is monstrously
dense. By the time we end with "Sol,"
Jupiterian leaves little doubt about the importance of this
release for its subgenre this year.
"Terraforming" is
available here
