A funny thing happened on the way to the Forum this year; I started listening to a handful of albums that had the black metal tag affixed to them. I don’t know if it was my mindset, the evolution of musical taste, or the fact that some of this music was actually really good, but three of these albums made my list (four, if you count the sweet little Sea Mosquito track), and today I’m going to tell you about my second-most favorite of the bunch: Dark Triad: Bitter Psalms to a Sordid Species, by the mysterious collective called Epiphanic Truth.
Epiphanic Truth take everything I like about progressive music and boil it in blackened ichor, creating a roiling, menacing concoction that is equal parts brutal riffs, space-age atmosphere, and jazz extravaganza. It’s a beautiful recipe. Even though the songs range in length from nine to twenty-two minutes, not once does the mind wander. From the opening fade-in of “The Truth of the Beast” to the majestic climax of “Our Vile Roots Flourish Beyond Light” and everything in between, the band never stays on one theme for too long. And the riffs—there’s plenty of riffs in each song. “The Truth of the Beast” pummels the eardrums for six minutes before fading into a wistful jazzy interlude for four minutes, until “An Inescapable Verdict” overruns the calm with an epic riff. The song itself is menacingly atmospheric, all overdriven bass and muttered lyrics, and no matter the pace or instrumentation it is fraught with tension.
And now, my bold take for the year: the blast beat is an overused and creatively hollow tool. Luckily, though, Epiphanic Truth use this extreme metal crutch for mere seconds. The band’s mysterious drummer plays with a ton of groove, driving the songs forward at a relentless and captivating pace, lending the songs far more impact than mere blast beats would. The only weak spot on the whole album is the occasional shouty hysterical vocals. Many styles are found here, from black to death growls, to cleans, to female, and even a Cynic-like vocoder effect, but the shouty stuff detracts from a near-perfect album despite making sense thematically. Ironically, album highlight “Our Vile Roots Flourish Beyond Light,” which is a 23-minute class study in prog-black perfection, makes use of both shouty vocals and blast beats, but only at times before the midpoint fadeout, after which the song is all groove and climactic build-up to a killer finale.
Engaging variety, deft arrangements, brilliant musicianship, a plethora of vocal styles, and truly outstanding production all add up to an amazing progressive metal release and one of my favorites of the year. I don’t know who Epiphanic Truth are, but it wouldn’t shock me if the band members all play in other amazing groups. Dark Triad is a monstrous and monstrous-sounding album, one that fully exemplifies its subject matter (psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism) in a truly impactful fashion.
Tracks to Check Out: “The Truth of the Beast,” “Our Vile Roots Flourish Beyond Light.”