Cailleach Calling – Dreams of Fragmentation
Release Date: 11th March 2022
Label: Debemur Morti Productions
Bandcamp
Genre: Progressive Black Metal, Ambient Black Metal, Melodic Black Metal.
FFO: Dawn of Ouroboros
Review By: Andy Spoon
In the Celtic history, people feared and revered the Cailleach (Kyl-yeach) “divine hag”, a creator of the landscape and weather, or so Wikipedia states. Cailleach Calling is a project derived from Tony Thomas, Chelsea Murphy, and Yuri Kononov, a trio separated by distance, who collaborated in late 2021 to craft Dreams of Fragmentation, the band’s 4-track LP-length release for 2022. Thomas and Murphy hail from separate project Dawn of Ouroboros, while Kononov had spent time in White Ward before adding to Dreams of Fragmentation.
Thomas tends to the guitars, synth, and bass guitars, which are tall as the sky at almost every moment, giving fuel to the fire that is the absolute wall of sonic mania of the first two tracks. Blistering, repeating, droning guitars relentlessly fill the void of each track, while still maintaining clarity to hear the dissonant chords and melodies, assisted by the pans and synth tones. The first-released single, Bound by Neon, is a perfect example of how the synth pans and guitar absolutely overwhelm the listener with a saturation-level of musical energy. The synths and spoken word elements are present in an interlude on track number 3, Cascading Waves, which is ambient, ethereal, and space-y before furiously breaking into a cacophony of screeching, writhing blast beats and howling guitars.
Vocally, Murphy provides a high-pitched fry that suits the genre perfectly. I’ve always thought that some of the best vocalists for traditional and recent black metal are women, as alto and soprano vocals lend themselves to the blackened atmosphere better than any other. Her vocals are set slightly back into the mix, harkening back to the earlier, more traditional days of blackened music, providing evidence that Dreams of Fragmentation doesn’t intend to necessarily innovate the genre, but add to the melodic diversity in other ways. Her vocals are dramatic and punchy, allowing the listener to be bowled over by the sound, rather than try to ignore the music to listen to the vocal mix, something expertly-achieved by Tony Thomas, who provided mix/master duties.
There are moments where the synth and lead guitar really come through the mix to create the ambient tone Cailleach Calling is trying to convey. The listener is meant to hear the ambient binary pads in front of the black metal, something that is not often done with success. Having the extreme music take a back seat to the slow-churning pads and reverb-laden guitar gives the album a dynamic that gives the listener a fresh experience of the nuance intended, such that musical interludes and breaks in the heavy music don’t seem like stoppages, rather than slow transitions into separate movements. It’s something that doesn’t disappoint if the listener is in the mood for a closer examination into the ambience of the record.
Each track is extremely-long; so carving out some time to really process the album is going to be a bit of a chore. Having spun the album during work, I was able to enjoy it more than during, let’s say, a workout or on the road. It needs the right environment, something that could potentially take away from its ability to reach listeners at their lowest-common-denominator state. It would be a stretch to say that some forms of extreme metal can be “calming”, but Dreams of Fragmentation might make the short list of albums that strive to point out that tiny intersection on the line graph of “intense” and “soothing” without being overly self-aware. 
(4 / 5)
Note from Metal Epidemic:
Our heartfelt thoughts go out to the bands Ukrainian drummer, Yurii Kononov. We hope both you and your family are safe and secure. Yurii is currently collecting/donating funds to people all over Ukraine in need of food, medication, clothing etc. If you’d like to donate, please follow this link for more details: https://linktr.ee/cailleachcalling
