Review by Sonny for Triptykon - Melana Chasmata (2014)

After disbanding Celtic Frost on a musical high with the doom-inspired Monotheist, Thomas Gabriel Fischer formed Triptykon, a band who would continue to build on that style of metal. This is their second album and it's a bit of a monster, weighing in at well over an hour and embracing several different styles from doom to death to thrash metal and with a vein of Eighties-influenced gothic rock running through a lot of the runtime.

Tree of Suffocating Souls kicks things off in old-school Celtic Frost fashion, complete with one of Tom's trademark "death grunts" and a killer of a central riff. TGF has always had a unique guitar sound that is really well suited to either thrash, death or doom metal and it sounds awesome on this opening track, getting the album off to a great start. Next track, Boleskine House (the house that used to be the home of Aleister Crowley which was bought by Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page in the 1970's) is a classic of eerie, gothic doom metal, featuring sublime female vocals from Simone Vollenweider. The out and out doom metal of Altar of Deceit is crushing, the uptempo, downtuned death metal of Breathing is punishing and any other cliches I can throw at them, except they aren't cliches if they're true.

Aurorae sounds like Killing Joke chilling with Billy Duffy and Andrew Eldritch after a particularly strong bong hit as the album's gothic content hits it's max and being a huge 80's goth rock fan, I love it! Demon Pact is doomy, but with a ritualistic atmosphere, created mainly by the drums, as if the band are trying to summon an ancient Babylonian demon. In the Sleep of Death is my least favourite track on the album, sounding a little bit cheesy lyrically, despite it's musical weight. Black Snow is a chugging behemoth, sounding like a slowed-down track from CF's To Mega Therion heyday, telling the tale of a dying tyrant facing up to his imminent demise. Waiting closes the album in a relatively gentle manner, with faintly weird triple vocals and an ethereal atmosphere.

So, a pretty great album with plenty of variety and songwriting skill from an extreme metal veteran, inspiring for all us old bastards out there!