Ashore the Celestial Burden

There is an obscure branch of the death metal tree that never developed into a legitimate 'sub-genre'. Let’s call it progressive, technical death/doom. Dark Millennium might have been the only band playing it. Their debut album (“Ashore the Celestial Burden”) has spiritual similarities with other left-field, adventurous bands like Pan-Thy-Monium, Afflicted, Dusk, Alchemist and Timeghoul. None of these bands sounded alike, but they all brought prog-rock influences into death metal, years before Opeth released anything. They also tended to share lyrical and conceptual themes; astral plains, outer-space, consciousness, dreamworlds, etc. More recent bands like Blood Incantation have tapped into this vein but it has been a long time coming.

“Ashore the Celestial Burden” sounds like the direction Chuck Schuldiner could have taken after “Spiritual Healing”. Imagine if Chuck had stretched his songs, slowed them down, introduced keyboards and acoustic folk instruments (such as the zither). Chuck never did these things, instead he took the speedy, jazz/fusion-inspired path paved by Atheist. Thankfully, Dark Millennium showed us what this ‘otherworld’ would look like. Their debut album sounds like a cross between the ugly death metal of "Spiritual Healing" and the progressive thrash of "...And Justice for All”. The result was as awesome as it sounds.

This album was an extension of the band's two demos. Dark Millennium (mostly) abandoned the faster, thrashing feel of the first demo, and favoured the slower, deathlier sound of their second demo. The song choices reflect this; four have been re-recorded from that second demo and only one ("Black Literature") from the first. Thankfully, Christian Mertens returns on vocal duties. His presence was so important on the first demo. His impassioned, intelligible screaming was sorely missed on the second. He breathes life and menace into these songs and gives them the narrative they need. He is one of my favourite death metal vocalists, alongside Schuldiner and Martin Van Drunen.

Dark Millennium benefited from being more technically and musically adept than most of their peers. They're less interested in showing off their skills than they are in creating soundscapes. Some of the passages on these lengthy songs almost sound relaxing, but there is always an underlying feeling of terror. The use of guitar effects is superb (such as the echo in “Disillution”). There are lots of keyboard sounds, it sounds like a real piano sometimes (such as the dramatic ‘stabs’ on "Beyond the Dragon's Eye"). The acoustic instruments provide depth and texture and nothing sounds out of place. The band were meticulous in how they planned these songs. There is no filler here. All the songs are excellent. The final track, "The Atmosphere", is my personal favourite. It is a dark, sinister epic that best captures their compositional talents.

The only slight problem is the production. This album doesn’t sound as powerful as it could have done. The bass is inaudible at some points. The guitar tone is clipped and ‘light’ in comparison to the band's demos. It sounds more like a thrash metal tone than a death metal one. Compare this version of "Black Literature" to the one on the first demo, which is much more extreme and evil. The trade-off is that this production accommodates the varied instruments and effects here. Perhaps this sacrifice was worth making but I wonder how good this album might have sounded with a more brutal production. Setting this minor gripe aside, "Ashore the Celestial Burden" is quintessential progressive death metal. It deserves a spot in any death metal collection.