The most prominent and significant American death/funeral doom emissaries, EVOKEN, succeed their 2018 landmark album ‚Hypnagogia‘ with their seventh full-length opus, ‚Mendacium‘. Set for release on October 17 via Profound Lore Records, the new work promises to be one of the darkest and most oppressive albums in the band’s unparalleled repertoire.
To offer a first glimpse into the record’s sonic landscape, EVOKEN have unleashed the single and album opener ‚Matins‘. The band comments on the single: „‚Matins‘ is a peek into a reality„. „Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful“ – Seneca.
EVOKEN – Matins (official audio)
Where EVOKEN’s latest album ‚Hypnagogia‘ would see the band capture and focus on a more melancholic, tangible, and even more of an accessible sonic design, ‚Mendacium‘ takes that acute shift back to the monumental dirge-like dread and woeful catacombic and disharmonious heaviness reminiscent of the band’s ‚Quietus‘ and ‚Antithesis of Light‘ masterworks. All while still encapsulating the tectonic-shifting nature of their ‚Caress of the Void‘ and ‚Atra Mors‘ releases while venturing more through classic gothic audial textures and even treading a little down experimental mire as well, reminiscing an aura seeping from such luminary artists as Dead Can Dance, Monumentum, and Disembowelment.
To signal this shift in sound harking back to this previous era, the band would recall the services of producer Ron ‚Bumblefoot‘ Thal who worked with EVOKEN on their ‚Antithesis of Light‘ and ‚Quietus‘ albums respectively. The result being ‚Mendacium‘ capturing a sepulchral heaviness saturated in ambience with even more of an emphasis on deathlike dread and anguish; an ambience reflecting the depths and catacombs of an ancient cathedral or monastery, ultimately defining ‚Mendacium‘ as EVOKEN’s most powerful sounding album to date.
