Subrosa – More Constant than the Gods

September 17, 2013 • Profound Lore Records

Yes, new Subrosa! For anyone who doesn't remember, I raved about their last album No Help for the Mighty Ones, a masterpiece of doom metal, and naturally I was excited to hear something new from them. While doom metal still isn't something I ever got into very much, Subrosa has bucked the trend and put out some really great music, and with More Constant than the Gods they certainly haven't gotten much worse.

The formula is pretty much the same: heavy and plodding doom metal with the occasional sludge and stoner influences, but very melodic at the same time—clean vocals, some actually catchy riffs, the occasional violin, some folky elements as well (like the entirety of "No Safe Harbor" and whatever the heck that pipe thing is in "Ghosts of a Dead Empire"). Despite this, it still retains a more typical doom atmosphere of being somewhat suffocating and claustrophobic, despite the generally clean and accessible production. I am a bit disappointed to hear the harsh vocals completely gone, as it was a really interesting element to their sound (especially when the vocals aren't particularly interesting in their own right).

Maybe it's just me, but I'm not quite as enthralled with the songwriting as strongly as I did with their last one. There's far too much of the same brooding chugging-on-the-root-note going on and not as much variation on that. The fact that these are slightly longer songs, with slightly fewer of them, probably contributes to that feeling. It's a bit of a detriment to my enjoyment of the album as it's a little too easy to get bored with some of the more repetitive sections; I feel like most of these songs should have been maybe half as long as they were. Or maybe it's just coincidence that the shortest song "Cosey Mo" is also the best? I don't know.

But no, it's certainly not a bad album. I probably wouldn't even call it a misstep; just not as good as No Help for the Mighty Ones. And that's totally fine, some people will like one and some people will like the other. Either way, this is definitely one worth checking out.

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