Occultation - Silence in the Ancestral House
Profound Lore Records
Doom/Gothic
9 songs (49:46)
Release year: 2014
Profound Lore Records
Reviewed by Charles
This is cool- an elegant swirl of softly fuzzy doom, reverential gothic atmosphere and neatly-worked pop structures. Occultation are a New York trio playing music which is charmingly spooky, or spookily charming, or whatever. On any given song it reminds me of a hundred different bands- but nearly always good ones.

There is a somewhat ephemeral introduction, which first acquaints us with arguably the band’s most recognisable characteristic: Viveca Butler’s vocals. They are laden with ambiguous gloom, and repeatedly put me in mind of SubRosa. Anyway, when proper first track First of the Last comes in, all the remaining elements are rendered vividly. The opening riff is old-times doom metal of a fine vintage- think someone like Pentagram. But this interacts with all these bass-and-guitar unison lines that repeatedly interject, and which actually have a strongly NWOBHM feel. The guitar tone is just right for a band that is into all these retro influences: crackling and fuzzy, but with an underlying warmth to it. It is given extra character by the jangling treble that inflects the guitar- this is something Negative Plane also do (guitarist E Miller plays for both bands).

But fuck, the best thing here are the tunes- at least, when Occultation places their melodies front and centre. There are a couple of tracks- the abovementioned First of the Last, or The Place Behind the Sky- which are endowed with these really radiant, reverential choruses. In the latter example, the tasteful organ highlights and the vocal harmonies even brought to mind one of my favourite Hammers of Misfortune songs, Church of Broken Glass. The neat sculpting of these melodies, combined with all the tightly-structured nods to classic doom and new wave influences, actually made me think of Ghost, believe it or not. But Occultation would struggle to find the same kind of wide appeal, in any case; the menacing angularity of the riffs on tracks like Forever Hereafter would put off more mainstream listeners, but will also be irresistible to many metalheads.

Killing Songs :
First of the Last, Place Behind the Sky, Forever Hereafter
Charles quoted 85 / 100
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