Déhà – Nethermost & Absolute Comfort (Review)

Déhà is a Belgian solo artist who plays in a vast multitude of bands, across a variety of styles. In his solo work alone he spans a wide range of genres. This album is his 38th, (I think).

Déhà is a highly prolific artist with a withering work ethic who manages – against the odds – to consistently maintain some of the highest quality levels across a multitude of genres and styles. As a very, very small slice of examples, check out the marvellous Decadance from 2022, as well as bands such as Acathexis, C.O.A.G., Cult of Erinyes, Silver Knife, Slow, and We All Die (Laughing). You won’t regret any of these.

So what does Nethermost & Absolute Comfort bring us? Two colossal songs of expansive, multifaceted doom, that’s what. Rooted in funeral doom, but not entirely restricted to it, these two tracks offer a feast of suffering and anguish for listeners to fully immerse themselves in.

We start off with the 45-minute Nethermost. Of this track, the promo blurb says it spends its time “showcasing the vocal centipede Déhà is, with clean singing, cavernous growls, insane shrieks and more”. It’s not wrong, and it allows the vocal talents of the artist to shine, as applied to a funeral doom framework. The music itself isn’t found wanting either though, expressing itself through a despair-ridden doom-rich lens that magnifies all of its strengths. It swamps the listener in misery and hopelessness, bringing forth a melancholic darkness that’s almost tangible. Across its running time it brings in additional influences to augment its cold doom heart, including progressive rock leads, droning ambience, and atmospheric highlights.

The final song is Absolute Comfort, which spends 27 minutes building droning atmosphere that is wreathed in spectral torment. It climbs relentlessly, slowly ascending a mountain of pain as the vocals become more and more daemonic, and the music increasingly forceful and destructive. This is my favourite track out of the two, and it ends the album on a terrifyingly high point.

Nethermost & Absolute Comfort is a record to fall into and lose yourself in. Déhà has crafted an album that doom adherents should definitely spend some time with.