You’re not reading the words of a doom metal pundit, so forgive if I end up writing about this release in the terms I’m mostly used to, which translates as “resonant potential”. Sustain consists of a pair of 12-minute tracks where Chaos Echœs’s reign of blur is complemented by Mats Gustafsson’s reeds (no further explanation necessary, methinks) in situations of scarcely lit barrenness.
In “Spellbound” the reciprocal influence occurs inside an environment of Cimmerian grief, the music pregnant with inauspicious signs. The tarnished jangling of the guitars cradles the listener as Gustafsson’s tones sound like the last cries of a still powerful body before its ultimate demise. “Harvest Of Souls” is slightly more violent, percussively oriented in its equally sinister aura, the overall mood not a little ritualistic. When the band’s call becomes incessant, the saxophone shifts a couple of gears up in quasi-free escalations of rage.
The album’s succinctness does not detract from its efficacy. The stuff can be played ad infinitum, and the ears won’t suffer. Another unanimous decision win for Utech.
MASSIMO RICCI. TOUCHING EXTREMES. 