Altar of Plagues - Mammal (2011)

Words of advice: when you're going to kick off your album with a 19 minute long track, make sure you front load it with some interesting material, or at least some sense that you'll be escalating towards such. It's this very tedium which offers a crippling initiation unto the Altar of Plagues sophomore Mammal, and a flaw that I've found difficult to circumnavigate in subsequent returns to the material. Sure, I can just skip this track and move onto the fluffier, marginally superior remainder of the disc, but it's presence alone ensures that my overall relationship to the Irish band's latest will be fleeting at best. A shame, really, because I've liked much of the band's work up this point, and in particular White Tomb proved a promising specter of spacious, urban black metal which directly addresses the cracks in civilization.

Now, it's not solely that Altar of Plagues compose such lengthy songs that is the problem here. They've done it before, and Mammal has the same four-track configuration as its predecessor. But where White Tomb had this gripping, dark miasma about it that slowly suffocated and drew the listener into its callous concrete folds, "Neptune is Dead" does next to nothing. Ambiance begets a cyclic two note progression that remains the same through the oncoming blast beat, and we're subjected to over three minutes of sameness until another minimalist sequence ensues. Of the 19 minutes of this song, there are maybe two points where it's not empty and droning: the warmer melodic sequence at about 5:30 and the more frenetic tremolo after the eight minute mark. Both are decent, but really, in a song this swollen shouldn't we be able to except something truly amazing to happen? It doesn't.

The rest of the album. Not too shabby. I like the dense, sludgy guitar tones in "Feather and Bone", and the steady muted thrash sequence above which the angst laden vocals bark out and tiny, spooky guitars pan out almost like incidental pianos in a tense horror scene. There's also some tapping in there reminiscent of Gojira, with cleaner vocal accompaniment. The wailing ethnic vocals that open and close "When the Sun Drowns in the Ocean" are compelling, as is the use of creeping strings and looping drums, though this should largely be considered an ambient piece. And "All Life Converges to Some Center", the last and second longest track is somewhat emotional and expressive black/post-rock sludge with a brief electro-noise finish.

Mammal isn't all that bad, it just takes too long to get anywhere, and much interest is lost in the waiting room. Fans of spatial, wide open post-rock or shoegazer black metal like Deafheaven or Lantlos will undoubtedly find this an absorbing experience, but then for many such folks you could simply juggle 2-3 notes and apply feedback and rasping and it would seem a Renaissance. In truth, despite its few appreciable moments of warmth and texture, this is naught more than the law of averages, a 52 minute journey into emptiness. The lyrics are decent, using a streamlined conceptual appeal (I like the 'horses are rapid and ready' line refrained in two of the tracks), but the vocals delivering them aren't particularly effective. Ultimately, I just didn't wring out the same level of immersion here that I did with the debut, and the appeal of these Irishmen might have reached its plateau.

Verdict: Indifference [6.25/10]

http://www.altarofplagues.com/

Altar of Plagues - Tides EP (2010)

Altar of Plagues are easily one of the most promising acts brought to bear on a largely vacant Irish metal scene in decades. Their brand of baleful, beautiful post-black metal does inhabit the same, worn space as many trend-driven acts of the day, but they manifest a strange, suburban sincerity that is impossible to escape, and I find their output far more valuable than a large number of the other acts to which the craven hipsters offer ritual masturbation. They're also no stranger to the EP format, having spread their buzz through the underground with previous 30-minute outings Through the Cracks of the Earth (2007) and Sol (2008), so I had every confidence they'd be able to fill up another half hour with appropriate aural decay.

And this is precisely what they do over the two tracks and 36 minutes of Tides, which shows all the strength of their 2009 debut White Tomb, giving its constituent halves even more time to individually breathe. Like most bloated compositions, the listener should expect long, drawn out passages, with few tectonic shifts in pacing, as Altar of Plagues transport you into the numbing miasma of their existence. It might be shortsighted to really call them 'black metal', as they best resemble an epic disciple of Neurosis or the oft lauded, fellow disciple Isis, but certainly there are surges of monstrous tremolo picking and snarling vacuum that pepper the landscape of "The Weight of All", which somehow succeeds in absorbing you through 20 fucking minutes of bleak, riveting content. Periods of vapid calm and sludgy menace alternate through a dour, minimalist panorama of graying and sepia hues, and it's the better of the two pieces, though the shorter, 15 minute "Atlantic Light" should likewise titillate if you appreciate its somber heft.

Like most albums of this variety, there is a time and place for Tides which is not constant. This is not the sort of record you'll put on when you're in need of a burst of energy and enthusiasm. This is the soundtrack to a slowly wasting, mass consciousness, and should be treated as such when you choose your time and location. Driving or walking through the abandoned urban streets, so blank that you feel zombies are going to launch themselves at you from hidden precipices, or an overcast, ugly countryside where even the cattle waddle about in disinterest, these are the ideal vehicles of appreciation for such hymnals that Altar of Plagues evoke. Tides is proof that there is some life left in them to leech, that perhaps this will not be a one shot wonder, that their suicidal oppression will persist into a new scheme, but the next time out, it might be compelling to hear them branch into various spectra of emotion rather than flogging the same dried tears.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]

http://www.myspace.com/altarofplagues

Altar of Plagues - White Tomb (2009)

After a tasteful pair of EPs, Ireland's Altar of Plagues issue their debut full-length through Profound Lore records, and if you were a fan of their brand of swelling ambient and melodic, melancholic black metal then you are unlikely to be disappointed with this.

White Tomb consists of two tracks, each divided into two sections, and clocks in just beneath 50 minutes. "Earth Pt. I: As a Womb" sets off the album with a crisp grace; a monotonous, progressing synth saturated in sparse guitar plucking and then a crescent of feedback, migrating into a blast beat and wall of driving chords beyond the 2 minute mark. The track wanders through numerous sequences of chords, all are very pleasant if at times repetitious. "Earth Pt. II: As a Furnace" is even more breathtaking, with some scintillating aggression and lush acoustic/folk segments, a post-rock edge throughout much of its discourse. "Through the Collapse: Watchers Restrained" opens with some of the heaviest black metal on the album, but then devolves into a creeping, minimalist landscape of snarled spoken word over chagrin inducing black doom. "Through the Collapse: Gentian Truth" is a majestic piece which winds across the morning hills like a mist, again breaking down into minimalism, but in its case a sort of ambient with distant vocals...perhaps the most telling moment on the album.

The imagery conjured through Altar of Plagues is not one of abandoned forests and mountains, but the dark and forgotten underbelly of urbane, mundane existence, transformed into a dark beauty often overlooked. Listen to this as you overlook an empty city at 5:00 am sunrise. This isn't something one is often exposed to through this medium of metal music, and it's certainly this band's forte. White Tomb also sounds quite good, the guitars are immersive throughout. The vocals tortured. The drums flowing and expressive. It's a difficult journey to leave once you set foot down its path, and superior to their previous EPs, which had already promised at a rare potential.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

http://www.myspace.com/altarofplagues