Twilight has released a stunning effort in III: Beneath Trident’s Tomb; but that’s the good news. The bad news is it is also their last release.

III: Beneath Trident’s Tomb (Century Media) is a grand swan song of noisy, yet tasty and sludgy riffs, in a raw wall of sound courtesy of producer/guitarist/keyboardist Sanford Parker (Minsk, Corrections House). This is further enhanced by the addition of a guitarist who is known for making musical noise an art form – Thurston Moore – yes, of Sonic Youth. It may seem to be an odd pairing, but it does work, and it should. Sonic Youth carved their niche as avant-garde musicians with little regard for things such as standard tunings and playing it safe, and Twilight is cut from the same cloth…albeit the darker, more tattered edge of it.

Moore is but another notch in the belt of a band that has culled quite a roster of musicians over its 14-year existence. The lineup for this final release is rounded out by vocalist N. Imperial (Krieg), co-founder/drummer/bassist/vocalist Wrest (Leviathan), guitarist/vocalist Stavros Giannopoulos (The Atlas Moth/Chrome Waves). Their performances are as good as expected, but this record overall appears to be a cross between their 2005 self-titled release with its aggression and Black Metal lo-fi trappings, and their 2010 release Monument to Time End‘s gaze-y leanings.

‘Lungs’ opens the record with Black Metal screams through Parker’s atmospheric production and grinding riffage. ‘Oh Wretched Son’ is dissonant and driving, successfully combining Noise Rock with Death Metal. ‘Swarming Funeral Mass’ is a doomy affair, starting off sparse but later filling up like an angry well complete with metallic banging effects and dual screams. ‘Seek No Shelter Fevered Ones’ also starts of quiet but very quickly rears up into a powerful beast of a mid-tempo song. ‘A Flood of Eyes’ reminds me very much of Neurosis overall, which is never a bad thing, then it cranks up the Thrash, brings in the barreling double-bass and then brings it down to a mid-tempo trot, resulting in a very cool musical ride. ‘Below Lights’ closes out the record, starting out as a creepy industrial song, and ending as a very creepy Industrial/Death Metal hybrid that would the perfect soundtrack to the kind of nightmare that wakes you up in the middle of the night and prevents you from going back to sleep.

There is not a lot of speed on this record, but what it lacks in speed and blast beats it more than makes up for it in sheer intensity. There is a weight to this record that is palpable, and practically visual. It is very easy to allow your mind to go to very dark places as this insidious soundtrack blares itself into the cracks of your subconscious.

Sonically broad, cold and uncomfortable, calling it Black Metal is not completely accurate. Other Metal genres snake in and out, such as doom, thrash and death. “Experimental” is a word that I do not like to use because it implies a hesitation or an uncertainty. That is not the feeling I get from listening to this record. It is a carefully crafted slab of Metal that is intended to be powerful and unsettling, and it succeeds at both. To get the best idea of what you are in for, picture Tombs at its bleakest, or Neurosis Nat its angriest.

Co-founder Blake Judd (Nachtmystium) appears to have been involved with the writing and development of this record, but left prior to its release. Perhaps this ended a band whose existence was as unpredictable and shrouded in mystery as the music itself. It may never be clear whether Twilight was a black metal supergroup, a kult collaboration, a label-commissioned project or the madness of one man with friends who understood it. Whatever they were, they leave as an enigma with a righteous stain of sound to mark their departure into the ether.

9/10

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Lynn Jordan