Kronos

I jealously snatched Dante from the promo pit in the hope that Xenobiotic would treat me to another Mordrake. While Dante follows closely in that style, it’s a far less substantial record, too focused on executing its concept to introduce much musical interest and too overproduced to let those scraps of interesting music make an impact.

Expanding the dark romanticism of Deathless, Davidson, Bamberger and Pearson crank out the darkest, heaviest songs of their career together, never missing a beat.

Despite being nonstop fun, Gloire Éternelle, like Dasein before it, is too generous with its charms to make them last, cheapening them through so much reproduction. That being said, it still fuckin’ rules.

After listening to the record dozens of times over the past month, I keep coming back to it not to make notes or to consider it critically again, but just to witness it, finding something new to love every time. Archspire have outdone themselves, and it’s an absolute joy to hear.