GiggySound

It is an uncommon thrill that a band’s first release brings with it the promise of a great future. What is rarer and verging on the surreal is when a first release clearly shows that a group of artists are already the real deal, deserving of being spoken alongside the greats that inspire them. Whilst it might be preferable to avoid “inflicting” hyperbole upon first steps, once in a long, long while the response to a new project can be so viscerally moving that it seems unavoidable. It takes time and consideration to be sure, to understand that something is more than just a novelty in the context of a vast and lengthy listening experience. When something makes you feel that way you did when you first fell in love with a particular musical style, such esteem becomes undeniable and essential to express.

Church are a doom metal band formed in recent years out of Sacramento, California. They are Eva on vocals, Matt on drums, Ben taking bass duties, and Shann and Chris responsible for guitars (the later contributing some backing vocals to their work and the individual responsible for bringing the band together). After starting live performances in early 2014, Church released their first songs in April 2015, Unanswered Hymns, through Transylvanian Tapes. The cassette version became available just over a week ago and later this year a 180g vinyl edition is planned for release through Battleground Records. The band’s ethos is that the music should “speak for itself”. It must then be said that, from the first moments, their eloquence is astounding. Church sound like they were born to speak this way.

“Dawning” opens Unanswered Hymns at 19 minutes in length. Introduced by a riff that succinctly clarifies where Church reside on the heavy spectrum, it is when the bass and drums join in that the sound sucks all of the breath out of you, immediately elevating the composers above the dense proliferation within the stream. The guitars are so dense, rough, and filthy, but without severing any of the detail and clarity. With the distorted bass and monstrous drumming ominously filling space behind them, Church billow forth as something primal yet musically articulate and succinct. Nothing is lost in going for such power and volume, in reaching for a production that is blissfully suffocating with its weight.

The result is an atmosphere that is immense and precipitous, put together in commanding fashion. With each engaging and meditative movement, “Dawning” relentlessly creates an epic listening experience, climaxing with an oozing tidal wave of aggression like watching all that you hold dear consumed by an inferno in oneiric slow motion. Church clearly understand that the path to great doom is through simplicity and patience, gradually adding details that amplify the drama of a piece to a level of crushing gravitas. The standard is set very high for the songs ahead.

“Stargazer” follows on from the dark and restless trepidation of “Dawning” as a song awash with profound melancholia. It has been written here before: there is something triumphant in the deepest, most heartfelt doom, even when it is at its darkest and most mournful. “Stargazer” exemplifies this. It is grief at its most pure and vulnerable, spoken of to the world from a place where the artist is completely consumed by such feeling… whilst knowing that there is something better, one’s sights fixed firmly upon the light and possibility from the position of complete loss. After the chilling screams and funereal procession of riffs that compose the song’s beginnings, a gorgeous and lachrymose lead wails onwards, so simple and elegant in its sadness, so full of longing for what is beyond the pain of the immediate. “Stargazer” is a reminder that when doom is played with such emotional sincerity there is not much else around in the world of heavy music quite as powerful and satisfying. There are bonus points for the Tom G. Warrior grunt on 7:57. It’s rare that a familiar garnish on a creation is such a perfect touch.

The final track is “Offering”, retaining all the characteristics Church have exhibited on the first two tracks whilst momentarily bringing the tempo up (just ever so slightly). Initially, the song takes things a little more towards a stoner rock direction. Whereas “Dawning” may have been more baleful in its aggression, like gazing into the eyes of a gorgon, “Offering” paces about the room like a wild beast on the verge of erupting in a fit of destructive cruelty. Midway, the riffs transform back into a creeping funereal mantra, building ominously towards denouement. Gradually, the dirge disintegrates into a malevolent altered state of feedback-driven noise, fading into exhausted calm.

Whilst the instrumental aspects of Unanswered Hymns are just dripping with quality, there is no question as to what lifts Church up to the divine. The vocals of Eva Rose on this release are simply spectacular. Her shrieks, backed up by the bellows of guitarist Chris, are like gale force storms of ice upon your skin. The clean lyrical passages, each one of them ethereal and stately masterpieces, are filled with beauty and menace all at once. Every word is sung with such intense feeling and distinctive tone, crowning the music with that sincerity that burns as Church’s soul.

As previously inferred, it has taken some time to get around to writing about Unanswered Hymns. The effect it has is so powerful and personally resonant that one has to take the time to be sure, pinching yourself until you bleed, to wake up from the dream they have created. With considerable reflection, the songs are definitely up there with many of the great doom records heard across decades. Church’s will to create emotion on such an epic scale is irresistible. One becomes overwhelmed and completely lost in the scale of their solemn overtures and the tremendously heavy sound invoked to create them. You could not ask for more from music of this style.

Unanswered Hymns is out now through Transylvanian Tapes.

The Black Captain hosts RTRFM’s Brain Blood Volume this weekend at 1am (+7GMT), Sunday the 21st.