Amarok - Resilience

Angry Metal Guy

It’s been a while since I’ve had the opportunity to review funeral doom for this site. Mostly, this is Cherd‘s fault; funeral doom itself is something of a rarity in our Promo Pit, and the guy has some sort of sixth sense that specifically tells him when it shows up. So it’s nice to sit back, relax, and listen to some low, slow, doom. Amarok, hailing from the United States, aren’t just a band of funeral doom, however—on Resilience, their second full-length release, they blend a whole bunch of styles together to create a dark, gritty, and towering work of music designed to appeal to the most morose of metal’s mortals. But how does it stack up to the crushing weight of expectation?

In typical funeral doom style, Resilience is primarily made up of four songs that each span between twelve and eighteen minutes. Many hallmarks of the style are present—slow, dramatic, drawn-out riffs, growling vocals, and the aforementioned long songs. Opener “Charred (X)” is perhaps the most funereal of the bunch, opening with slow, bleak passages that build carefully to a quiet interlude midway through the song. From there, the song builds and builds, slowly incorporating variations, breakdowns, and finally elements of black metal into the mix. Mournful guitar leads inject melody throughout while agonized vocals rasp, growl, and scream their way into a mournful edge for the song.

Resilience by Amarok

But even this “most funereal of the bunch” has that blackened edge, and this is where Amarok look to set themselves apart. Throughout Resilience, the band incorporates elements of doom, sludge, and black metal into their music, a choice that’s evident in the songwriting, production, and mix of the album. The guitars are crunchy with distortion, and in fact, one of the more memorable choices on “Ascension (XI)” is the way it heavily amps up that distortion towards the end of the song. By the time “Penance (XII)” reaches its conclusion, it has fully transitioned to a black metal song, with blast beats and tremolos emerging from the slow build which starts out firmly in funeral doom territory. Throughout, Amarok is careful to keep a morose atmosphere, an edge of gloominess to each song that allows the album to feel, ultimately, like a unified work of doom, despite its many influences.

Resilience hits a lot of the right notes in its sludge/doom/black/funeral metal blend, but it feels like an album that’s playing it too safe. Most of it follows a familiar structure, in which Amarok finds a strong melody to act as the primary theme for the song, and then, in true funeral doom style, repeats it, often with small variations to keep it from becoming stale. On “Ascension (XI),” however, the pattern just doesn’t stop repeating. Most of the song (and it’s an eighteen-minute song, the longest on the album) is that same riff. Despite the variations and impressive vocal performance, it’s hard to shake the feeling that the band found a strong melody and never fully moved away from it. Unfortunately, “Penance (XII”) follows a similar pattern with a riff whose timing and feeling are extremely similar. This hurts the album’s pacing and places several lengthy passages in a sort of “background noise” category, where the record hits a comfortable stride and stops doing anything exciting with it.

Of course, there are far worse things than for a song to be comfortably fine, and the ideas that inform these songs are strong ones. On the whole, Resilience is a good album, one that finds a strong catharsis as it blends several styles together in a natural and effective way. I may have a few issues with the songwriting, but I can’t complain about the way the leads make me feel, the strength of the drumming and vocal performances, or the clever way it does blend those styles. I look forward to seeing what Amarok do next—Resilience is a strong foundation to build on.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Vulture Print & Vendetta Records
Websites: amarok.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/amarokdoom
Releases Worldwide: June 28th, 2024

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