RANNOCH
Reflections Upon Darkness EULOGY
UK metallers give tech-death a Byronic twist
RANNOCH ARE
POSSIBLY the oldest ‘new’ band in metal. Their small back catalogue, consisting of one album and two EPS, belies the fact that this heavy quartet formed way back in 2004 and, despite fleeting highlights like playing at Bloodstock in 2011, have maintained the momentum of a quadroplegic sloth.
Reflections Upon Darkness is its creators’ first album in almost seven years, and it doesn’t take long to figure out why, since it’s a progressive death metal opus of gargantuan proportions. Its 12 songs often have the length and grandeur of 90s Opeth – with half of them all combining to form a 2112-esque suite – while the technical chops are consistently on par with Nile or Psycroptic. Plus, lyrically, it’s a concept album centred around a Lord Byron poem.
Combine all of this with the fact that Reflections… was largely written by one man, leader Ian Gillings – who also doubles as its producer – and you get an album with a lot of shit going on. As a result, it’s an impressive listen, able to fill large windows of time chock-a-block with athletic guitar leads and fanciful rhythms. Still, there’s just enough soulful flair to make it stand out from other shredathons.
De Heptarchia Mystica adds a symphonic, Fleshgod Apocalypse-like bombast that punctuates the drama of its breakdowns. The Hanged Man is a slow build, culminating in enormous, double-tracked choruses befitting of a power metal track. And then there’s the long-running Darkness, which spends almost half its time exploring the more quiet and ominous side of Rannoch’s soundscape.
Reflections Upon Darkness spews pure technicality, but the songwriting is dynamic enough to head it off from just being pointless showing off. Armed with a more regular schedule both on the road and in the studio, Rannoch could soon be counted among the UK’S death metal elite.
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FOR FANS OF: Opeth, Black Crown Initiate, Rivers Of Nihil MATT MILLS