GOLGOTHA – HUBRIS

From the opening moments, and throughout the course of this album, we’re guided into a mammoth sense of space and volume supported by strong production values yielding a clear and intricately crafted compendium of darkness and grandeur. As expected within the doom psyche, many of the songs are mostly mid-tempo, matched with downward chords, punchy riffs and mountainous drums nuanced with subtle keyboard arrangements. Fronting this aural experience is their triumvirate of clean staccatos, harsh vocals, and guttural growls defining an intimacy and scope embedded within the lyrical prose.

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Opening with A Simple Life and its heavy rumble and inviting synth leads, we soon hear the largeness of the band working a gargantuan rhythm. Empty Minds emerges from a pacier blackened metal approach with grim and frosty vocals juxtaposing with the slower emotive tones and delicate beauty of the cleaner vocal ranges. Too Dark is a darker death melody with a strong chorus work, addictive guitar hooks, an enforced solo, all making for a potential radio favourite.Fire In The Shadows delivers with solid slabs of riffage, disparate vocalics of harsh roars and brighter hues that denote a bleakness survived by determination and will. Closing out with Intolerance, is an intense and brooding reflection that is raw, heartfelt and employed with the sense of gothic-like tale of tragedy and sorrow.

I feel this album is written as a deeply personal sojourn exploring grief and loss and finding resilience through hope and determination. An intensely structured collection of eight songs over 42 minutes that is sombre as it is tumultuous, the listener is continually drawn into the hook laden melodies and the harsher textures of this uniquely weighted landscape. One could be forgiven that there is an air of repetition in the band’s stylings, however the experience of the band’s longevity quickly overshadows this thought as the confidence and strength of their professionalism is tangibly immersive and astutely engaging. 

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Following similar sonic paths of fellow legendary merchants of the dark, Candlemass, Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, Draconian and confluences of Type O Negative, Jarboe, and Lacuna Coil; Hubris charts us into a mesmerizing theatre that is rugged, powerful, and poignant.

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SCORE 8.5/10

Reviewed by glennosp

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