Myopic & At The Graves - A Cold Sweat of Quiet Dread

Angry Metal Guy 50

Collaborations between artists are usually a tantalizing prospect. In recent years we’ve had a handful of high-quality collaborations: Cult of Luna and Julie Christmas, Thou and Emma Ruth Rundle, and Spectral Lore and Mare Cognitum the cream of the recent crop. Collaborations can be tricky, especially in the age of the supervirus and restricted travel. Communication of ideas is vital. A collaboration can either sound like a blissful mesh of an artist’s best traits or a haphazard collision of distant sound. Ben Price, the sole member of doom/sludge project At The Graves, has buried himself in a casket with the sludge/black/death/you-name-it three piece Myopic. A Cold Sweat of Quiet Dread is their first collaborative full-length.

At The Graves and Myopic share many sonic sounds, making collaboration a less conflictual process. There are minor differences in their sound, however. At The Graves is less abrasive and more somber. Myopic, conversely, possess a harsher, colder depth. It seems, then, that the combination of the two projects would inject some emotive tactility into Myopic and some abrasive density into At The Graves, creating the ultimate post-metal creature. That prediction is mostly true. Delicacy and warmth is a distant trait in A Cold Sweat of Quiet Dread. Take the muscular gut punch of opener “Through Veins of Shared Blood” (a nod to Neurosis, perhaps) as an example where movements are rigid and exact. Like a cold shot of an alien serum, the track neutralizes the brain by injecting throbbing bass monotony and stark industrial riff patterns. Although the song doesn’t work towards an emotive crescendo, Myopic & At The Graves‘ three-headed vocal attack offers a degree of tactile dynamism.

Myopic & At The Graves’ sound, for lack of a better descriptor, is dry. In a sense, A Cold Sweat of Quiet Dread is like a body sucked of fat, leaving only tight, sinuous muscle. There are fleeting moments of warmth that work well as brief flashes of fire against the rigidity of the record’s core. “Reeling Between” begins as a fog of blackened doom that utilizes a deeper guitar and bass plod. The fog unravels to reveal a spectral moon in the form of tender, slow moving clean vocals. The dynamic between the colder movements of the opening and the increasingly melodic twinkles of the song’s spine is engrossing, especially when both melody and blackened heaviness conjoin to push the track forward. Similarly, “Gold Sinews” swaggers with a greater sense of melodic warmth. In the build-up, clean vocals weave between bubbling grooves, reappearing in the back end with harmonious support from the two other vocalists. Texturally, there’s little difference between the dual harsh vocal attacks. Both are gruff with their post-metal inflections. They are impassioned but difficult – personally – to connect with emotionally. The clean vocal roundedness from bassist Nick Leonard completes the triangle and offers a much-needed variety and humanity to the record.

As a whole, a sense of discernible variety is lacking from the record. Though reasonably short at forty minutes, I get a sense that tracks find it difficult to reach their perfect final destinations. The groundwork is strong, but Myopic & At The Graves stagger to the finish line. As a five minute track “Reeling Between” would feel contained and powerful, but it’s near-eight minute runtime enables needless repetition and extension that sucks away impact. The warmer direction of “Stray Parasite” is similar, luring a listener in with an intriguing set up before getting lost in a cold haze. Shorter tracks are more successful. At four minutes “Oppressive Ruminations” is the shortest track. It shimmers, at first, with fluid melodies before implementing blocked industrial riffs and dry post metal hammerings. It’s satisfying due to its brevity. Unfortunately, a sense of brevity is rare in A Cold Sweat of Quiet Dread.

Myopic & At The Graves show great promise when at their best. Closer “Resonating Loss” is a much punchier, coherent seven-minute affair that dangles the carrot of greatness in front of a listener. Dual clean vocal harmonies wrap around one another as if in a dust storm, picking up debris in the form of squealing lead guitar string bends, loose bass lines and deep, rumbling drumming. The dust does not settle. Shrieks and growls emerge like spitting lava as the song builds to a crushing crescendo of post-metal and blackened doom. Unfortunately, the heat of satisfying build-ups and breakdowns evades much of the record. In essence, I found a A Cold Sweat of Quiet Dread too amorphous, cold, and distant. Despite focusing closely on the minutiae of the record, I couldn’t find the key that granted access to the warmth of the record’s heart.



Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Grimoire Records
Websites: grimoirerecords.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/AtTheGravesBand | facebook.com/MyopicBand
Releases Worldwide: March12th, 2021

The post Myopic & At The Graves – A Cold Sweat of Quiet Dread Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.