When we’re immersed in the world of funeral doom, we’re already in a bit of a small room. It’s a real niche sound that doesn’t have much in way of a dense crowd with what only feels like a handful of fanatical doom fans pursuing such extremes for the genre of doom with scant few musicians actually daring to pull it off in really any form. For those that do, however, it’s not unoften for us to come across performances that are downright ferocious and monolithic in every form. It’s a style that is begging for expansion even if it does thrive in the darkest reaches of the underground, and it’s slowly but surely that we’re seeing new names come to the sound to see what else can be done with it. Possibly the freshest name in the game, Desperation Eclipse starts off on a high note.
Given the tendencies for funeral doom metal to make tracks that expand well past ten minutes in length on the low end, it can seem a bit much to ask for a multi-track album out of the gate for any band that dares to dip their toes in the sound. With but two tracks to call its own, “Heights of Negation” follows that trend as it’s across both tracks that this debut EP finds itself crossing over 32 minutes overall to make this far more than a mere taste of what Desperation Eclipse is able to deliver right out of the gate. Rather, this is already a full-blown meal of raw, dense darkness the likes of which funeral doom is only able to execute in this capacity. To then say that Desperation Eclipse surpasses expectations would be to put it lightly at best. A dreary creation that holds nothing back as the whole of the universe is swallowed in the gaping maw of void, “Heights of Negation” manages to already show off a clear understanding of the style while managing to check off all the necessary boxes for Desperation Eclipse to already make itself a force to be respected. Heavy by all accounts, slow and titanic in its nature, isolating in its grand depiction of horrific unending emptiness; “Heights of Negation” is what many look for out of the world of funeral doom without question.
It’s too easy to claim that fans of funeral doom have slim pickings when it comes to new names or wild talent in the style given how sparse activity can be at any given time, and it’s because of that “Heights of Negation” manages to rise from nothingness to act as a glorious new point of interest in the style that we have been without for far too long. Too early it is to say where Desperation Eclipse will take their sound or how they’ll pursue their future, but it would be wrong if we didn’t mark what an interesting first step this EP is.
LISTEN to “Heights of Negation” on Bandcamp here.
LIKE Desperation Eclipse on Facebook here.
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