Seven Pathways to Annihilation

After the dementedly groundbreaking self-titled debut, Howling Sycamore hastily put together a second full length a year later. "Seven Pathways To Annihilation" is decidedly darker and more impenetrable than what preceded it but beyond that, it is just as fiery and unhinged. The same cast of stunning characters returns; Jason McMaster screaming for all the metal world to hear, the always inimitable Davide Tiso assembling guitar parts that never quite fit but ALWAYS work, the master Hannes Grossmann on drums of course and a stellar supporting cast featuring Marty Friedman, Bruce Lamont, Karyn Crisis, Matt Baldwinson, Dehn Sora, Jamie King on production and Kevin Hufnagel of Dysrhythmia with some sweet leads.

The only difference this time is that the whimsy and energetic abandon that graced the first album is gone. This one takes itself a wee bit too seriously folks. The guitars are downtuned and the melodies downcast. The lyrical tone of the S/T was searching for transcendence while this is more along the lines of grappling with existence. "Departure" is the title of only the second track and opens on a bleak note:

The electricity in this mirror
Whispers to my ears
About all the clashing pathways I live with
Hitting my senses with sparks and nails
Showing me what things would be
If nights didn't last a lifetime
And darkness wasn't this lonesome

Gone is the glee and thrash-like wonder McMaster greeted us with initially. Here he is all woeful and troubled. Not an easy voyage we are gifted here pilgrims. It is about as bleak as they come this side of Nevermore. The music is strangely propulsive but it backs off into all manner of turns before getting you to....where exactly??? The songs do not resolve into comprehensible endings. Nothing is amicably settled, it seems, between all the arguing melodies and the disparate harmonic backdrop. That is the real evil done to this album because as seeds of ideas, these are really strong song premises. Take "Second Sight" for instance whose moody premise is strong enough to launch a quasi-doom epic of prog proportions but it is instead teased to no end with off-kilter melodies that go nowhere and is saved only by Marty Friedman soloing spectacularly as it closes.

There are highlights, of course. Opener "Mastering Fire" is imposingly dark but varied. Kevin Hufnagel and Davide Tiso make a great guitar team. Hufnagel pours chemical leads into an already tenebrous situation, made so by Tiso's deep languorous riffs. It is a rich song and one that I come back to every time. "Raw Bones" is huge and dense and variably intense. McMaster is venomous and he drips conviction as the song behind him grows and grows into some deathly urgency. Closer "Sorcerer" is nearly as magnanimous with crazy sax lines from Bruce Lamont and the spiritual darkness of Karyn Crisis' lyrics, definitely another one that calls for further unpacking.

A grand album, as was to be expected with what Howling Sycamore delivered first, but not a very memorable one. It requires time to fathom its grit. You may not completely adore it after that but you'll at the very least appreciate that even though everything raptures within it, there's still cause for alacrity without it. What am I saying? I don't know. What is this album saying?