Esoctrilihum - Saopth's (Self-released)
The most noticeable difference between this album and Consecration of the Spiritus Flesh is the instrumentation. The latter experimented with a hardscrabble minimalism, jettisoning Asthâghul's typically decadent synth-work for something like an audiophile's attempt at raw/lo-fi BM. Saopth's, however, is a much more nuanced outing, and showcases his true power—a sorcerous command over an elastic, fulminating mix.
Listening to this record is like getting lost in an enormous labyrinth; the architecture is byzantine and claustrophobic, and the walls seem to shift and re-arrange at the whim of the howling artificer within its glyph-marked center. The vocal production is particularly multifarious, and Asthâghul's screams haunt every nook and cranny. His voice bellows over war-horn synth lines, slithers down from high-vaulted ceilings, and reverberates through dark stone, only to suddenly tunnel into the listener's mind like a hyper-focused psionic assault. This unhinged performance elevates the texture-oriented songwriting, transmuting otherwise dreary and hypnotic symphonic BM into something far more phantasmagoric and alive.