CONSECRATION — Fragilium (review)

CONSECRATION — Fragilium album cover Album · 2019 · Death-Doom Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Kev Rowland
Formed back in 2010, this is the second full-length album from the Norwich-based band, following on from 2014’s ‘Ephemerality’. While doom is obviously at the heart of what there are undertaking, there are also plenty of elements of death and black metal in the overall sound, which makes for a very interesting mix indeed. The opening number, “In Darkened Slumber”, is the shortest on the album at just 7 ½ minutes long and sets an incredibly delicate atmosphere. The band change their style thereafter and become more straight doom, but they never really lose that overarching impression of something that is more than just the musical notes. There is a strength within the fragility, a sense of the ominous, of something quite dark which is hidden behind the curtain waiting to attack.

The production is simply superb, with real, clarity, which is what is required when a song commences just with delicate cymbals, a bass not being plucked and a snare being hit just once in a bar. They slow their doom right down at times, and are always in total control so that the listener is being drawn in. The only way to really appreciate this album is by playing it on good headphones, as there is the risk hat some of the nuances will be lost among ambient sound. But don’t think this is anything but a very heavy album indeed, as there are plenty of dark elements to counteract the light, as here is a band who know exactly what power they have at their disposal yet never really let loose the hounds. Overall this is an incredibly impressive atmospheric doom album which is well worth investigating.
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