Dave Aftandilian
Beautiful darkness, evoked powerfully via death/doom rituals. Poised between existence and its opposite, we burn to ash, emerge anew, dissolve again, endlessly.
BLOOD HARVEST RECORDS and HELTER SKELTER PRODUCTIONS are proud to present TAPHOS' highly anticipated debut album, Come Ethereal Somberness, on CD, Cassette and 12" vinyl formats.
Hot on the heels of BLOOD HARVEST's compilation of the band's first two recordings as Demo MMXVI & 7" EP MMXVII, garnering widespread acclaim and heightening anticipation for their first full-length, at last arrives TAPHOS' Come Ethereal Somberness. As a debut LP, Come Ethereal Somberness does everything it should: stay consistent to a band's sound established on their demos whilst pointing toward new avenues. Here, TAPHOS do both, and then some.
Hailing from the same Danish scene as Undergang and Phrenelith, TAPHOS create a classic - and classically gutted - style of Metal of Death. Their first recording, Demo MMXVI, possessed a darkly thrashing sound highly reminiscent of turn-of-the-'90s death metal on both sides of the Atlantic, as resolutely Scandinavian as it was American, its filthy propulsion as palatably fresh as it was authentically ancient. On the subsequent two-song EP, TAPHOS' sound becomes more world-eating, their songwriting aims more epic whilst not losing the raw fury of their beginnings.
Now, with Come Ethereal Somberness, they synthesize the two stylistic shifts into something both berzerker and epic, manic and finessed in equal measures. Indeed, TAPHOS are firing on all songwriting cylinders here, as the energy literally bursts off the charts but retains a sense of composure and daresay class rarely scene in full-blooded death metal. Hammering and hideous yet nevertheless invoking a clarity that never castrates their attack, the quartet render each of these seven central compositions (bookended by moody instrumentals) a story unto itself. Hell, the titles themselves tell that story - "Ocular Blackness," "Insidious Gyres," and the equally telltale "Thrive in Upheaval" and "Impending Peril" among them - and that story is horrific.
New nightmares are here, then, and TAPHOS will be taking them on the road with a full European tour this May alongside Swedish comrades Degial. Until then, as its title ominously proclaims, Come Ethereal Somberness!
credits
releases June 8, 2018
Blood Harvest - Helter Skelter (distributed & marketed by Regain Records).
supported by 18 fans who also own “Come Ethereal Somberness”
never been a big death metal fan but this is actually super accessible for the genre, has fun concepts, and personally i'm always a fan of albums with short tracklists and huge runtimes (for individual songs) Great time, good jumping on point for newbies too. alienasu
supported by 17 fans who also own “Come Ethereal Somberness”
Spun it about 5 times over the past weekend, in a sea of overbearing DM this demo hits hard with those blasts that groove along with the pummel of the riff, and solos and synths that take you somewhere else, better than the record versions imo. bacon_cakez
Epic full-length debut is a superbly crafted, black metal LP blending choirs, strings, wailing guitars, and soaring vocals. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 21, 2015