Inter Arma - Paradise Gallows
Richmond group expand doom metal's horizons on transcendent new album
Richmond’s Inter Arma are a band resistant to being conventional. This ethos is clear just two tracks in to new album Paradise Gallows, as the group instantly lurch from the pretty guitar and soaring solo of intro track ‘Nomini’ to the slow, weighty riffs and death metal growls of ‘An Archer In The Emptiness’, their heaviest slab of guttural brutality to date. As they showed on 2014 EP The Cavern, which consisted of one 46-minute song (just 17 minutes less than Sleep classic Dopesmoker), the band uncompromisingly record exactly the kind of music they want to. Paradise Gallows is no different, and although much of their music centres around a doom style, they rarely stay confined to it, and introduce countless new elements throughout the release’s 74 minutes.
Using various styles may often be deemed as experimentation, but each new sound Inter Arma explore here is confidently and effectively executed, as if meticulously crafted to reflect exactly how the band wanted the track to sound. The desolate reverb on frontman Mike Paparo’s vocals on ‘Transfiguration’ adds to the paranoid guitars, that sway back and forth as if imitating the ship on the album’s sleeve, and helps create a gripping atmosphere. Meanwhile, 'Primordial Wound' uses hypnotic, cult-like chanting as well as harsh bellows to instil an unbearable tension within the track that is only heightened by psychotic growls late on.
The unrivalled freedom Inter Arma utilise allows their music to be huge in scope, and here, the group’s palette has only grown, with their signature mix of soaring highs and apocalyptic lows seeing infusions of cleverly-utilised melody, as well as the band’s first real dealings with clean vocals. It sees various elements, from Neurosis-influenced sludge metal to blackened tinkering with folk elements, cohesively stitched together into one large, encompassing sound. From the album’s acoustic opener to the dark lengthy closer 'Where The Earth Meets The Sky', Paradise Gallows is a blistering album that happily combines seemingly conflicting elements seamlessly.
9/10
