Convocation – No Dawn for the Caliginous Night
Release Date: 24th November 2023
Label: Everlasting Spew
Bandcamp
Genre: Funeral Doom Metal
FFO: Skepticism, diSEMBOWELMENT, Atramentus, Esoteric.
Review By: Eric Wilt
Convocation’s No Dawn for the Caliginous Night is the perfect accompaniment to a quaint stroll through a fog enshrouded graveyard on a moonless night. A duo, Convocation combines the instrumental talents of L Lakksonen of Desolate Shrine fame with the hellish vocals of M Neuman. No Dawn is their third full length; being released by Everlasting Spew, it comes six years after Stars Across and three years after Ashes Coalesce.
With five songs clocking in at 48 minutes, Convocation’s new album does not rush. Instead, the duo’s brand of funeral doom takes the listener on a hellish trip through the Stygian depths via a soundscape that is both haunting and compelling. In addition to the typical instruments of doom metal, Convocation employs organs, violins, and choirs to add a bit of light to music that is characteristically dark.
Graveless Yet Dead gets things started. The song builds in intensity over the course of several minutes and crescendos a little past the halfway mark with a blood-curdling scream that will raise the hairs on your arms and neck. The second song is called Atychiphobia and if the scream in Graveless Yet Dead is blood-curdling, the scream in Atychiphobia is panic inducing. Both songs benefit from the addition of strings to take the songs to an almost theatrical level.
Between Aether and Land is next and is an instrumental. Sandwiched between the first two songs and the last two songs, Between Aether and Land feels like the calm between the storms. Not that it doesn’t get heavy, because it does, but because M. Neuman’s vocals are so horrifying, that their absence gives the listener time to prepare themselves for the second half of the album.
Lepers and Derelicts sees M. Neuman return to action and is perhaps the most brooding of all five tracks. Like a slow-moving behemoth trudging through a snowstorm, Lepers and Derelicts pushes on through dark passages to get to the light provided by a mirroring of female voices before returning to the dark chaos of the beginning of the song.
The final song on the album is Procession. Like a summary of everything Convocation has presented thus far, Procession brings back the organ, strings, and hellish vocals to send the album out on a high note. This song features a female voice speaking overtop of the music, which doesn’t necessarily add anything to the song, but certainly doesn’t detract from what is a very strong song.
If you are a fan of doom metal, especially funeral doom, you will enjoy No Dawn for the Caliginous Night by Convocation. Both players have turned in flawless performances, and the music is both fulfilling and chilling because of it.
(4 / 5)
