This is the debut album from Finnish funeral doom band Arche.
Transitions is a 36-minute exploration of funeral doom. Spread across three tracks, Arche’s seductive music is best experienced whole as it flows from piece to piece into a singular work of solemn art.
Arche play a very atmospheric and compelling form of funeral doom. Resplendent in ethereal wreaths of melody and expressive in its affecting application of misery and woe, Transitions is an album that’s instantly immersive, but has seemingly endless depths to explore. The listener can spend hours lost in its embrace, despite, or maybe because of, its relatively brief running time. Transitions‘ siren call keeps bringing you back.
Heavy, yet emotive, Arche’s material is potent with its mood-based presence. The songs are a carefully crafted mixture of despondent beauty and crushing funeral dirge. The two main approx. 15-minute songs are complete worlds into themselves, while transition track Transition bridges these two colossi with an instrumental vista of engaging sights.
Transitions offers a well-rounded experience that’s hard to escape from, but then why would you want to? Arche invite you to journey with them through funeral doomscapes that are layered and rich. A variety of sounds and textures are the listener’s to devour and savour as the exquisite hopelessness washes over them with luscious doom-drenched intensity.
Arche’s first album is a notable funeral doom release that should hopefully have fans of the style clamouring to experience its expressive depths.
Highly recommended indeed.
Wonderbox Metal 