Eye of the Golem - Nigredo

Angry Metal Guy 40

Italian post-metallers Eye of the Golem cite quite the range of influences for their debut record, Nigredo. Now, post-metal is a broad church, with a lot of touch points and sub-sub-genres ranging from delicate instrumentals to harsh, abrasive post-hardcore. And I will always applaud a band for trying to garner attention for their new record by citing eye-catching influences. But, I’ll be honest, I’m not hearing a lot of Katatonia or Amenra in Eye of the Golem. And, while there were perhaps (very distant) shades of Type O Negative’s debut on their poor 2021 EP, The Cosmic Silence, these have been abandoned for Nigredo. None of this needs to be a bad thing, but I think we need a dose of realism here. So what, exactly, do Eye of the Golem serve up on Nigredo?

For the most part, Eye of the Golem operates at the post-hardcore end of the post-metal spectrum. Nigredo majors in chunky, chugging guitars, underwritten by big, distorted bass lines and a lot of reverb. And within that, we are closer in tone to The Atlas Moth than we are to Cult of Luna or Isis. There’s a shimmering intensity to some of the material on Nigredo, with moments of the psych-sludge that The Atlas Moth brought to Coma Noir surfacing here and there (most notably on album highlight “Starvation” but also on the closer, “The Abyssal Zeitgeist will Tear You Apart”). Bright, feedback-laden guitars (handled by Marco Testino and Alessandro Di Gloria) layer up walls of sound that are almost claustrophobic, reminding me of a stripped-back Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean in places (“Absence of Body doesn’t Mean Death”). It’s when Eye of the Golem amp up the melodic guitar lines, as they do at the mid-way point of “Black Cathedral” and the back end of “Starvation,” that you get glimpses of what Nigredo could have been, namely something in the vein of Beak’s glorious Let Time Begin, or maybe even a sludgy Crippled Black Phoenix.

Starvation by Eye Of The Golem

The most divisive part of Eye of the Golem’s sound on Nigredo is sure to be the vocals. Handled jointly by Di Gloria and bassist Andrea Giuliani, they vary between a sort of strangled howl (“Psychic Walls of Desperation”) and a gruff bark, closer to what one would expect from post-hardcore (“Quantum Prison”). At their strongest (on “Starvation” and “The Abyssal Zeitgeist Will Tear You Apart”), the vox have a sort of (very) rough, smoky melodicism to them that is vaguely charming. At their worst, the amateurish warblings feel strained. Lacking in both power and intensity, they sometimes actively undermine, rather than enhance, the heaviness delivered by the guitars and bass (“Quantum Prison”). The addition of echoing background spoken-word musings (“Absence of Body doesn’t Mean Death”) does little to improve the experience. Hari Di Giangiacomo’s drums work well enough as the rhythmic backbone Nigredo needs. However, they are also straightforward and, rather than offering anything by way of adornment, simply form a part of the background soundscapes.

Despite Nigredo only running to 45 minutes, I feel like I’ve spent a lot of time with Eye of the Golem. On the positive side of the ledger, the first two tracks (“Black Cathedral” and “Starvation”) open Nigredo with its strongest material, showing intent, and Eye of the Golem close proceedings relatively strongly also (“The Abyssal …”). It’s the intervening three tracks—or 20 long minutes, as I like to look at it—that hits the other side of the ledger. However, Nigredo is so flat and undifferentiated that the margin dividing the stronger material from the weaker is narrow. The production is actually stronger than I’d expect for a record of this type, with the guitars sounding warm and melodic, at least when they rear out of the ocean of reverb. The mix is also decent, feeling relatively balanced.

Overall, Nigredo was a hugely frustrating record to review. It represents a significant step up, in pretty well every respect, from The Cosmic Silence EP but Eye of the Golem show flashes of what they can do, while resolutely refusing to play up to their strengths. “Starvation,” while not a song of the year contender, is a genuinely great slab of sludgy post-metal, with a good chug and a rough melodic edge, bordering on psych stoner. Where was this on the rest of the album though? Recruiting a better vocalist would make a massive difference but will not fix all the issues.

Rating: 2.0/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Argonauta Records
Websites: eyeofthegolem.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/eyeofthegolemstonerband
Releases Worldwide: October 4th, 2024

The post Eye of the Golem – Nigredo Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.