The Oubliette

"this parting yet to be understood"

Chris Hathcock, North Carolinian metal stalwart whose collaborations with various projects from his home state have ranged from symphonic death metal to scorching power metal, began The Reticent, a sort of My Dying Bride-esque answer to progressive metal. Fraught with excessive gloom and autumnal reflection, the project starts to hit home with 2016's "On The Eve Of A Goodbye" whose subject matter was the suicide of a close friend. Four years later and we have "The Oubliette" and it comes with that extra layer of melancholy for the common man. This is a concept album about Alzheimer's through the experience of one Henry. We follow him as he desperately seeks answers his devolving mind can no longer provide him. Lyrically, the album is VERY strong. All the story is told and not alluded to with pithy quips. In the same breath however, there's still enough space and tense pauses to jolt you into utter bleakness. You come for the riffs and stay pondering the frail outcome of Henry's existence - and perhaps yours. There's added characters who voice their parts expressing concern, grief and frustration at just the right times and in the right doses. It never feels overly done or Ayreon-like. It is a grim exercise in communicating the moribund effort that is life - and it successfully achieves all it set out to do in such heartbreaking brilliance that it could easily be my album of the year.

"they’re analyzing (agonizing), penalizing (neutralizing), criticizing (minimizing), fantasizing (ostracizing), paralyzing, supervising (and surmising)/all will be lost soon"

Musically, this represents all the best influence of Opeth except Hathcock is more mindful of jazz styling and functions as a more complete sole musician than a full band. This very personal take makes it come across as singer-songwritery in places but that makes the story hit home harder than most. The riffing is undeniably rich but seems reliant on a lot of restraint and juxtaposition through clean and distorted to create the apparent layers. "Stage 4 – The Dream" opens on such a heavy atmospheric note, for instance, where mournful notes peel fantastically through but are not vigorously voiced and are exploited more for their ambiguous tones. We then move towards a dramatic prog riff-off where the tasty drumming faces off with jangly melodies, plummeting bass and eerily soothing synths. It is all so aptly dreamlike. Chris' singing has to be mentioned specially; he is such a formidable vocalist and I can't see this material falling in more capable hands. He evokes a bit of Daniel Gildenlöw in some of his phrasing but not enough to say that's an influence. His voice is utter desolation itself and yet it communicates so much loss and yearning to just make one want to look for the nearest corner and cry - or something like that. Then there's the flipside where he growls and rasps with so much intent as on "Stage 5 – The Nightmare" that you're left stirred and shaken. That fucking song is brazenly harrowing and all its blazing scalar runs do not as much as impress me as they run my blood cold.

"death comes so slowly in this blankness"

The word "oubliette" comes from the French "oublier" which means "forget" and the sense that Henry is trapped and desperately hunting for release never leaves you. By the time the title track approaches however he is at that damned point of exhaustion. Musically, the band follows suit. Sparse keys float in and out of the gripping calm and the ensuing doomy riffing is just so appropriate. The repeating "I am awake" verse that cuts through is related with so much unexpressed anguish and sadness that left me feeling nearly just as exhausted. At the end of the song when he's begging and pleading through so much musical chaos, you get a feeling that this is perhaps the best produced metal album within an inch of DSBM. Hats off to Jamie King for the classy production values and Chris himself for executing this bleak but very human vision with the utmost realness.