It is always impressive to me when people from already awesome projects can create another interesting and vital branch on their musical tree. That is what Mike Snow (Seas Of Winter, Apricitas) and Aki McCullough (mighty Dreamwell) have accomplished with the awe-inspiring Necroplanet release Negative Space (self-released). Only Author & Punisher‘s latest comes to mind as something close to capturing the gigantic scope of dirgy and semi-industrialized emotion on display here. Cosmic funeral doom that isn’t for the faint of heart and which will soon become a minor addiction you will want to spin alone in the dark after a long day. It makes total sense that it is a concept record about isolation and emptiness.
Everyone has been processing the sad and triggering Neurosis news, and it was good to have something bleak and cathartic to cauterize the wound a little this week that is heavy, spacious and yet…doesn’t sound like them. I get more of a Godflesh stranded with Dr. Manhattan vibe from this baby while also being reminded of the desolate and trippy rambling of some of the Across Tundras stuff that left an impression way back when I first heard them. The creeping, hooky and galactic intro to ‘Birth Of Isolation’ practically gives the song ‘Black Sabbath’ a run for its money.
The glacial laments Snow created are stunning and topped with McCullough’s consistent brilliance, it is easily top five of the year for me along with Mares Of Thrace‘s potent comeback, Vomit Forth, Sonja and Falls Of Rauros. All happen to be artists really not conforming to trendy shit and instead creating on a higher frequency of pure artistry for the self. Kudos and thanks.
The title track “Negative Space” is one of those rare gems so all encompassing that you want to swan dive deep into the apocalyptic and massive grace of the track and live in the bleak landscape it portrays. It feels as humbling somehow as staring at the night sky and being ok with being a speck of dust that somehow still has a soul. While the album cover to this monster might call to mind Shellac’s Terraform-era aesthetic, the music is as dirgy as planets colliding in Kirk Windstein‘s mind during a spaghetti western binge…or perhaps Westworld?
In a time when the news shows Pakistan going through utter hell with floods, but people still want to pretend that everything is fine, it feels good to find art that is confronting the destructive nature of humans and yet also reminds that we can create vast and powerful beauty if we change course. But yeah, if you need an album to spin while everything implodes on a massive scale, few are a better choice than this one.
Not a single complaint about this momentous and rewarding beast.
Buy the album here: https://necroplanet.bandcamp.com/album/negative-space
9 / 10
MORGAN EVANS