Twilight - Monument To Time End

What’s this? It’s another ‘super group’ lad, called Twilight, so sit up straight and pay attention. Featuring Isis’ Aaron Turner, Nachtmystium’s Blake Judd amongst other members of note, Twilight is in many respects a super group. Monument To Time End is the experimental black metal outfit’s second release, five years on from the self titled debut.

Calling Twilight just black metal would be inept as several doom and sludge influences interject themselves. First track 'The Cryptic Ascension' is in fact unnervingly paced. Its dirty riffs slowly seethe from whatever mire they came from. Follower, 'Fall Behind Eternity' treads on similar ground but gathers more and more in the tempo.

When discussing a metal album of any sub-genre, words like "relentless" get thrown around a lot. For 'Decaying Observer' it rings wholly true and is in fact a gross and horrid understatement that can only be fully understood when its hail of harrowing shrieks and buzzsaw riffing carnage is unleashed.

One of the most marvellous elements of Monument To Time End is its melding of varying vocal patterns from N. Imperial’s snarl to Aaron Turner’s hypnotic clean vocals. Furthermore, tracks '8,000 Years' and 'Red Fields' have an astonishingly towering presence, the former serving some blackened grandeur in its guitar work. The slower, broodier elements are then extolled again on 'The Catastrophe Exhibition' while manic, angular riffs sway with the morose din.

Monument To Time End is nothing but devastating in its harsh but cathartic stampede. The band’s membership has been integral in this with the record showing that it exceeds the sum of its parts.

8/10