ALBUM REVIEW: Telepathy - "Tempest"



By: Phil Weller

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 31/03/2017

Label: Golden Antenna

 

A monsoon of riffs, from slow, knuckle-dragging doom moments to the calculated chaos of Mastodon, spinning on a huge axis with their long, winding loops, this album it hits you like a drug, freewheeling into your body.

“Tempest” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1). First Light

2). Smoke from Distant Fires

3. Celebration of Decay

4). Echo of Souls

5). Apparition

6). Hiraeth

7). Water Divides the Tide

8). Metanoia

The Review:

Telepathy’s sound has always been monstrous. With each release their raw, voracious and vicious sound has gained more and more clarity, their ideas more expansive and forward thinking. Now, with Jaime Gomez Arellano at the helm, they are a different beast entirely. The producer, who can boast Ghost, Opethand Paradise Lost as notches on his bedpost, is exactly what the band need at this point in time, and it will surely propel them to greater, more luxurious stratospheres.

‘Smoke From Distant Fires’ instantly bombards you with craggy, precipitous guitar work, cascading through the crystal clear mix with a menacing intent. But if those opening explosions come across like ‘Times of Grace’ era Neurosis, then they flaunt their lighter, airier and more celestial side in later passages. This band has always prided itself on their intelligently thought out and diligently executed musical contrasts. So often do their dark, miserable skylines develop overhead only for blinding rays of light to pierce through like faint hope and brighten the landscapes. Throughout the track the contrasts are in constant conflict, a tug of war for aural dominance throwing the song this way then that, and it makes the result nothing short of evocative and spellbinding.

‘Celebration of Decay’ marries dislocated, barbaric rhythms – something akin to post-metal having a seizure, but with perfect timing – huge, mountainous chords that lumber like giants and hypnotic diminuendos that drag you by the feet and pull you deeper into reverie. It is in these quiet, reflective moments that voice recordings of astronauts looking back down on Mother Earth can be heard. It’s apt for a band which has never quite sounded like they were of this planet. The song’s title too, in today’s climate, has an added poignancy to it.

‘Apparition’ flirts with black metal, with warmongering blast beats and the rapidly picked guitars reverberating like they were recorded in a vast, echoic cathedral. The sound is so huge it towers over you, belittles you. ‘Water Divides The Tide’ meanwhile, is more forthright. A monsoon of riffs, from slow, knuckle-dragging doom moments to the calculated chaos of Mastodon, spinning on a huge axis with their long, winding loops, it hits you like a drug, freewheeling into your body.

It is an album, for all intents and purposes, better experienced than anything. Be that in the flesh or sat in the dark with their immersive compositions blaring through your headphones, painting vibrant images in your imagination as they do, for the best effect I advise you stop reading this review. Just listen.

“Tempest” is available to preorder/buy here



Band info: bandcamp || facebook