This is the seventh album from Aphonic Threnody, a funeral doom band from the UK.
It’s always a pleasure to listen to a new Aphonic Threnody album. The primary artist behind the band, (also in Arrant Saudade, Dea Marica, and Towards Atlantis Lights), has been remarkably consistent over the years, reappearing regularly to unleash another colossal opus on the funeral death/doom underground. With this in mind, your further listening assignments include 2017’s Of Loss and Grief, 2020’s The Great Hatred, 2021’s The All Consuming Void, 2022’s The Loneliest Walk, and last year’s A Silence Too Old.
Which brings us to Grace My Heart. This is somewhat of an unusual album from Aphonic Threnody in that although it’s still a big record at 67 minutes in length, each individual track is far shorter than the average for the band, with only one breaching the 10-minute mark. Aphonic Threnody are concise and focused on Grace My Heart.
Despite this, Grace My Heart is still a colossal collection of towering funeral death/doom songs, filled with loss and grief. One of the strengths of Aphonic Threnody’s music is its ability to portray deep emotion, and Grace My Heart is no different in this regard.
On this record the main artist is joined by three talented singers, including the mighty Déhà once more. This allows for layers of vocals, from the haunting and beautiful to the dark and horrific. This vocal diversity is used to support the enriching of the rest of the music, allowing Grace My Heart to be expansive and vast in feel and shape. Aphonic Threnody’s output has always had this aspect for sure, but here it is expanded upon further, while simultaneously being condensed into shorter songs than the band typically deploy.
Grace My Heart is a highly expressive and affecting work, using less brute force feeling, and more nuanced emotional layers. This is facilitated of course by the rich and varied vocal styles, but also by the songs as a whole. The songwriting is tight and constrained. The artist masterminding Aphonic Threnody has a clear vision for what he wants to achieve with this new work, and he has the tools, skills, and accomplices to accomplish this.
The heartfelt vocals, eloquent doom structures, and forlorn melodies all conspire to create an album of deep atmospheric immersion. It’s also has, in places, (whisper it), actual hooks, which is not common for the style at all. Although, this needs to be understood within a funeral doom context – you won’t hear these tracks on the radio any time soon. Blood of Gods is a good example, with the repeated backing vocal from Delora Ingrid getting under your skin quite effectively. This is also a good place to note that her clean singing generally across Grace My Heart is excellent, and helps make Grace My Heart‘s overall impact as forceful as it is. Not content with just this, she also contributes piercing screams when needed. Grace My Heart has the entire funeral doom package though, and is sure to be regarded as one of the jewels in Aphonic Threnody’s considerable discography.
If you’re in the market for sorrowful funeral death/doom with Gothic flourishes and deep emotional atmosphere, then Grace My Heart is for you. Aphonic Threnody remain one of the best, quite possibly the best, playing in this style, so don’t miss out on the dark charms of this latest record.
Essential listening.
Wonderbox Metal 