TRIPTYKON — Eparistera Daimones (review)

TRIPTYKON — Eparistera Daimones album cover

Album · 2010 · Doom Metal

5/5 · 2011-04-01
Wilytank

(Originally posted to Encyclopaedia Metallum: The Metal Archives)

When Hellhammer ended, Tom Gabriel Fisher went on to form Celtic Frost. Now the cycle has started again with Triptykon, nearly four years after Celtic Frost ended. Without any hindrance from the former Celtic Frost member, The Warrior has brough forth a grand piece of blackened doom metal mastery that actually may be superior to 'Monotheist'. Ladies and gentlemen, this is 'Eparistara Daimones'.

This album is full of memorable riff sequences and lyric passages. All the lyrics are simple in structure, but cryptic in content and meaning and effective enough to have you sing along to most if not all of the songs. The body that goes with the blackened lyrical soul consists not only of the heaviest doom riffs this far south of Candlemass, but also well spaced out higher tempo sections.

For example, let's look at the opener "Goetia". It starts with the slow intro, collects speed, and all of a sudden kicks your ass with the first main riff. If somehow you didn't have your ass kicked by the end of the verse, the song enters the pre-chorus and after that, BOOM!!! "LORD HAVE MERCY UPON ME!!!" This may as well go down as one of the most memorable doom metal refrains in my experience.

Actually, the memorable lyrics popped up a lot from "Rise! Abyss within my soul!" to "Pain! Pain!-Myopic Empire..." Even the 19 minute closer "The Prolonging" has lyrics that have me hooked: "As you [experience something undesirable], I shall [experience the opposite]." Seems cheesy from a glance, but partnered with the music, it just works wonders.

Musically, the album fluctuates its styles. "Abyss Within My Soul" is straight up doom metal, but "In Shrouds Decayed" takes a dark gothic approach which works really well with the lyrics sang with clean, but deep and foreboding vocals. "A Thousand Lies" is fast paced all around, but may actually be inferior to the other songs in comparison. The solos aren't particularly important, but the really memorable ones are in "Descendant" and "Myopic Empire". "Descendant" stays with the doom riffs for the entirety of the lyrical passage and speeds up at the end to fit with the guitar solo. "Myopic Empire" mixes clean and harsh vocals well and even adds a grand piano during the break for a cool experience.

Finally, there's "The Prolonging". It features colossally heavy riffs to go with its colossal length. It speeds up only briefly and doesn't get very fast at all. What I think is the best part though is the chain of power chords in the outro. All this is assisted with the lyrics wihich I've talked about before. This was the best way to end this album.

This album is amazing. Every song is great. None of this is skippable, not even the interludes "Shrine" and "My Pain". Tom Warrior thankfully isn't done yet and hopefully will continue to do great things under the Triptykon moniker. 'Eparistara Daimones' is totally necessary and essential to fans of doom metal, Celtic Frost, Hellhammer, and overall, Tom Gabriel Fisher's whole legacy.