The Long Road Home

The Body Cosmic is great and all, but have you ever given their debut a chance? This album already shows a lot of potential that they will later refine and master for the follow-up album. The myriad of elements that The Body Cosmic would be praised for are also present here: the use of negative space, mellow sections between high-octane melodeath sections, a long ass intro—this album in particular is actually the more grounded and dense of the two. Instead of the space-y themes and vibes that TBC would exude, this one feels closer to an Opeth album before they went 70s prog worship while combining the uplifting and adventurous feelings that Persefone has shown on their albums.

One thing many would catch on their first listen is that the short instrumental breaks between fast-paced sections are mainly played on an acoustic guitar instead of keyboards; this further shows their influences from Opeth, and in the age where Opeth no longer wants to play death metal, I'd take any band that takes their influences from Opeth because it's the closest thing we get to a new Opeth album that isn't prog rock. Another thing I appreciate is that all the songs here fade seamlessly into the next one, making the album a 76-minute song with multiple movements, but the movements themselves are just five long songs and a few instrumental interludes that connect the main songs.

The album begins with two instrumentals. While the first one is purely acoustic, it fades into the next song, which is when the other instruments join in before it also fades out and is connected by the first song on the album with vocals. While the songs themselves are long (all are over 10 minutes, in fact), they do not feel like they are overstaying their welcome; if anything, I think they are understaying their welcome. This album could double its runtime, and I would not complain at all. The instrumental interludes do a good job of giving the listener a break between the long epics, so it does show that the songwriters do know how to use contrast in order to get the best out of it.

Regarding the instruments, the guitars here are stellar; the songwriting duo balances the distorted guitars and acoustic guitars in a really good way; neither of them overstay their welcome; and they use the negative space/quiet instrumentals to great effect. The bass guitar is actually quite audible, and you can still feel its presence under all the noise; this might be attributed to the reduced amount of keyboard usage compared to their follow-up, though. The drums here are actually programmed due to the lack of a dedicated drummer (even on their next album, they only managed to secure a session with Dan Presland, who does session work quite often, and the band admitted that they got a lucky break with him), but even then the drums are subdued enough in the mix that an inexperienced ear could not tell whether they were programmed or manned. The keyboards here are basically nonexistent within the louder sections of the album, but they do show up in the quieter sections of the album, giving it an extra flair of serenity to the sound.

While it is not The Body Cosmic, the music here is diverse enough that anyone who is a fan of old Opeth, Persefone, or even Insomnium should check this out, as this album is the more grounded and dense of the two, and TBC went all in on the grandiose, maximalist part of their sound to create something entirely different, even better than this album.

Highlights: Eviscerate Divine, The Long Road Home, Lachrymae Rerum