Band:	Atavist
Album:	III: Absolution
Style:	Doom metal, Sludge metal
Release date:	June 2020

01. Loss
02. Struggle
03. Self-Realisation
04. Absolution

The more I listen to this, the more I think it should be mandatory for any slow doom album to have a violin.

Approaching Tool-like pauses in between albums, with II: Ruined being released in 2007, it somehow feels like this is the perfect time for the epitome of bleakness that is Atavist to return. First getting to know them through Winterfylleth's Chris Naughton being a guitarist in this band as well (Winterfylleth have also released a damn great record this year), I was amazed by how different of a sonic spectrum Atavist could reach. Of course Chris isn't the only member in the band, but since Burning Witch's Jamie Sykes is no longer in the band, I ran out of related bands to namedrop. But what is amazing about this album is that despite the long hiatus, each current member has been part of at least one of the previous Atavist records.

III: Absolution is made out of four behemoths in between 9 and 18 minutes, each of them glacially slow and bleak beyond belief. The album feels a lot closer to funeral doom than the post/sludge it had came to be associated with, but the tones do feel close to the sludge sound at times. Make no mistake, the sludge parts are in no way groovy. There is nothing fun about Absolution. It's exhausting, depressing, and frustrating, and this is probably the only time when I'll ever use "frustrating" positively in a review, because it's really rare to have music feel too one-dimensional, but achieve its intended effect with that one-dimensionality, in this case: feeling exhausting, depressing, and frustrating. This is an album that leaves you torn, which is ironic because it's far from the most depressing, raw, crushing, atmospheric or even slow metal albums out there, but it still does what it does.

I did mention the violin, it making appearances alongside the cello in the first track and last track, played by Bianca Blezard and Jo Quail respectively. And the effect is pretty devastating, especially in the last track that also has some synth soundscapes by Mark Deeks, in that it turns a bit of that hopelessness into hopefulness and then back into hopelessness in order to be even more crushing. It's somber, dreadful and it just tears you down. And it is here that the one-dimensional nature of the mid part of the album has the most effect, because "Loss" lures you in with some semblance of hope, "Struggle" and "Self-Realisation" pummel you and completely starve you, and once things start being hopeful again in "Absolution", the damage is done, the soul is wrecked, and the will is exhausted. Even the absolution it does give you it's bittersweet. As Chris states: "There is no joy here, only relief at the end of an arduous voyage."

I do find myself listening more to the bookending songs, mostly because of, well, the extra instruments, but also because I don't always have the willpower for the whole listen. Absolution is a wonderful return from one of Britain's most unsung doom bands, and also a perfect counterpoint to the epic but equally atmospheric Winterfylleth.