TRACK PREMIERE & REVIEW: Jupiterian - "Terraforming"

By: Ernesto Aguilar

Album Type: Full length

Date Released: 15/11/2017

Label: Transcending Obscurity

Jupiterian melds sludge undertones to an oppressive landscape, making it feel all the more like a slow autopsy video – you know what it is, and what may happen, but you cannot stop it or look away.  Jupiterian leaves little doubt about the importance of this release for its subgenre this year.

"Terraforming" CD//DD//LP track listing

1. Matriarch

2. Unearthly Glow

3. Forefathers

4. Terraforming (ft. Maurice de Jong of GNAW THEIR TONGUES)

5. Us and Them

6. Sol

The Review:

You can never quite avoid how much doom depends on the climate an artist creates. The music can be dirge like or plodding, the themes of those songs can be bleak and the theater of the artists can likewise invoke awe. Doom reaches such a select fan base, the artists must work especially diligently to capture attention.

In Brazil's Jupiterian, the listener discovers a group that has decided to go for an anonymous, masked visage. Many metal performers have utilized coverings, face paint or other means to obscure their identities and grab attention for the art as an entity rather than the players as focal points. Such is an important strategy in metal; it is a rejection of the star-obsessed popular culture that transcends borders. For doom acts, this decision is notably crafty. With a smaller pool of people into the music, a group must find any means to grab people. The less charitable may call such artisanship gimmickry. Connoisseurs of this wing of metal appreciate a band's commitment to its own backstory.

For any such outfit, including Jupiterian, such choices put attention on the music that could press upon it more scrutiny than might otherwise be aimed. With "Terraforming," the band's newest, critical ears are sure to go away happy.

Subtitling its recording "Atmospheric Doom​/​Sludge Metal," Jupiterian fulfills those audacious expectations by grinding out some of the better atmospheric doom you will hear this year. The quartet begins with "Matriarch,"a song whose creepy percussion into synths and deep drumming summon gloomy spirits. It is those guitars, though, followed by harrowing vocals, which seal the deal. Jupiterian melds sludge undertones to this oppressive landscape, making it feel all the more like a slow autopsy video – you know what it is, and what may happen, but you cannot stop it or look away. "Unearthly Glow" comes on that cut's heels, and it is even more weighty and deliberate.

What makes Jupiterian so enthralling is how it is able to expand what you think of atmospheric doom. By the third song, "Forefathers," you hear a more traditional doom sound, yet its start is more of a transition from the previous atmospheric selections. The musicianship is incredible, and how well this song fits with the ones before as well as the successive title track (complete with spacey opening) is a testament to just how gifted Jupiterian is with its music. You get more well-planned with "Us and Them." The song has acoustic guitar additions to its start, though it is monstrously dense. By the time we end with "Sol,"Jupiterian leaves little doubt about the importance of this release for its subgenre this year.

"Terraforming" is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook