Sacramental Death Qualia

Haunter is a Texan band that is now known for their off the wall progressive black metal; you know, the type that I, Voidhanger Records has been regularly releasing for years. Apparently the band started off as some form of screamo, but screamo isn't really my jam, so I have no desire to backtrack and see what they were all about before the transition. The band's second full length album, Sacramental Death Qualia, released in September 2019 is clearly an album that belongs on the I, Voidhanger label.

For those not familiar with the sound I'm talking about, the label seems to revel in weird, oft-dissonant, proggy death and black metal, the type of stuff one would expect from bands like Esoctriilihum, Convulsing, Deathspell Omega , and the like. Haunter certainly belongs within these realms, with their sprawling five-track album that clocks in at a little over forty-six minutes. It's really hard to pigeonhole the exact sound that Haunter is going for, but Akercocke would be a good starting place to look for similarities. Dark, atavistic black metal surges forth with a raging fury of blasting drums, swirling, claustrophobic tremolo riffing, and deep, cavernous vocals. The tempos are constantly in flux, shifting ever so slightly, before throwing down some angular, tormented riffing or dropping completely to a thunderous crawl, even while staying firmly in the realms of heavy music.

For the most part, Sacramental Death Qualia is a crushing, destructive good time, but where the band loses me is during the many, many detours into melodic, dreamy wandering and forays into progressive-ish, jazzy movements. Perhaps I'm not high-browed or patient enough for this type of interplay to be enjoyable most of the time. Certainly a well-earned respite is due when an album crams nonstop blasts and buzzing chainsaw riffery, but when a band's sound is already a bit off the wall and fluid in its songwriting it comes across as unnecessarily adding mood music to fluff out the track times or to make things seem more artsy or whimsical or whathaveyou.

The members of Haunter are clearly proficient with their instruments, seemingly near virtuoso at times with their unrelenting proggy black metal and crushing riffs and the constant barrage of thundering drums. I feel like I would enjoy the album a whole lot more if the band dropped the ostentatious attempts at jazz and art rock and focused solely on their churning, blistering metal. Despite that, this is a pretty enjoyable listen and it's highly recommended to those who dig proggy black metal done I, Voidhanger style. I can't imagine myself coming back to this one, personally, but there's no denying that it's well played, tight, and heavy as fucking hell.