Stream from the Heavens

How do you follow one of the most esteemed and pioneering releases in the history of metal? Answer: You don't. That's right, Thergothon completely melted trying to follow up their defining work, and this lack of ability to produce said follow up really only adds to the influence of the demo, the title of which I am fully aware but that I have no great interest in typing, so it'll be henceforth referred to as "The Demo". Anyways, they did eventually bash out the follow up which I sit here reviewing, but it came at a great price. The stresses of recording it and the delays in the release when it was finally completed led the band to decide they'd had enough and bailed out after just three years. Oh well, at least they do have that revered demo to cement their legacy.

I won't discuss what the future held for the members since I already typed that long-ass paragraph whilst reviewing the demo. I will discuss what happened within the band surrounding this release though. First, Niko Sirkiä adopted keys before the recording to try and give this more atmosphere. Well, the one thing this couldn't top the demo on would be atmosphere. Personally, I'd try and up the songwriting and, given the reception the previous release had, stay the fuck away from everything else (take note, Metallica). I'm tempted to cursorily give this a low rating, for blithely ignoring the phrase "If it ain't broke don't fix it", but that wouldn't be fair now, would it? To be true to you all I have to give this a rating based on it's merits, unfortunately. Large digression aside, let's talk about the album. Well, remember that distinctive twin guitar sound on the demo? Gone. Second guitarist Sami Kaveri quit due to the stresses of recording this damn thing. And when they did finally record it, they couldn't find a label to release it, so they broke up (out of distress, probably, they'd gone through so much distress to record it, and no-one would release it). Tiny silver lining here: the tiny Italian label which did release it, Avantgarde, have become a pretty large underground label. But that's about the only good that came of the decision to make this record.

Those paragraphs may have given you a somewhat negative impression of this release, but if I'm really honest with myself, it's not that bad. In fact, in terms of songs it's actually quite good, hence the overinflated score. I give the band even more points for actually pulling such a decent effort out of the situation. We've got the excellent "Everlasting" (wow, these guys love songs beginning with "E"), the delicate "The Unknown Kadath in the Cold Waste", which threatens to descend into crap at any moment but never does, thrilling you and keeping you on your toes. Also, that title is a veritable wet dream for Lovecraft fans such as myself (as if the demo wasn't). Finally, the re-recorded "Yet the Watchers Guard" is, and this is painful to type, far superior to the demo version. Also superior to the demo is the production, crystal clear and actually rather wonderful.

However, "Elemental" was always just a bad idea. Their signature song re-recorded. No. It was always going to be the bastard child. I actively shuddered when I saw it on the track listing, and Shock, Horror it's disappointing. It's actually not too far from the original "Yet the Watchers Guard" sound-wise. And all I'm gonna say about "Crying Blood and Crimson Snow" is that it's a poor choice for a closer and sounds like a failed My Dying Bride experiment. Elsewhere, the musicianship is tamer, it's less raw and it's just generally a downgrade from the influence of, yes, I'm going to say it again, THE DEMO.

In conclusion, hell, it's not bad, it's even better than decent, but it just isn't as good as it should be on paper. You want real funeral doom? Go bask in the excellence of, and I'm going to type it for the one and only time, the Fhtagn nagh Yog-Sothoth demo. That said, given the situation, major props to the band for pulling something this good out of their asses (or one collective ass maybe?), but it did seem like the whole music industry conspired to fuck Thergothon up. And that fact is more depressing than any of the songs contained on here... You know the Napalm Death album Enemy of the Music Business. Yeah, well it's not some British grind act, it's some plucky Fins who just wanted to be depressing.

Track highlights: "Everlasting", "Yet the Watchers Guard", "The Unknown Kadath in the Cold Waste"