Consecration - Fragilium (CD)

Review
VM Underground

UK-based doom band Consecration’s 2019 release “Fragilium” is five tracks long, but in true doom form, clocks in at almost an hour: most of tracks are over ten minutes long. The album starts slow, rhythmic and airy, focusing on guitar lines with the occasional church bell chime. The album progresses to faster moving riffs, and while decidedly doom, it borrows from black metal with a pared down and raw sound that overall serves the album well for the most part. The album features deep growling vocals, and the occasional goth-rock sounding riff is an intriguing addition. “Fragilium” as a whole has a cohesive sound; the tracks flow well into each other. Though they’re similar, it is not necessarily repetitive. The final track, “To Welcome The Grey,” is probably the album highlight: mysterious and interesting guitar rhythms which at almost halfway through is reminiscent of the moment in Blue Oyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear The Reaper” as the song transitions to the stripped down waltzy guitar line.

Overall Consecration heavily utilizes drawn-out intros to their tracks, for better or worse. I’m a lover of doom, but some iterations are too much for me — I booked it out of a Bell Witch gig a couple of years ago after feeling anxious and claustrophobic from the extremely slow moving progressions. Plenty of other folks find that compelling, so that’s up for you to decide. Personally, I could do with less intro work. That said, even with a shorter intro the songs would still be fairly long, but they are well composed in that they continue the musical thought well, and remain entertaining and interesting even at long length. That can be hard to do, and often one hears a band stick with a riff over and over which is ultimately detrimental to a song, even if the riff is cool. Consecration has struck a fairly good balance here.

In my personal listening experience, I find that the more heavily produced an album is, the less I tend to enjoy it. Consecration’s sound has black metal influence, thusly benefiting to a degree from a less produced and raw sound. However, I actually think this sound would flourish with just a touch more production, or maybe more intentional mixing. The drums sound off — sometimes too loud while still sounding weak, tinny, or lacking depth. They lack a certain presence. I would be curious to hear if a more balanced sound brought more of the mood to the forefront.

Though not their first release, “Fragilium” is a great spot for a doom band with some edge to them. I will be curious to hear the next steps for Consecration.

Author: Maxine

Review
Ave Noctum
7/10

I found it really difficult to review this album. Not because it’s bad, but rather because it’s an hour long and only consists of 5 songs, with the opening “In Darkened Slumber” being an ambient amble in a fen that allows to you to truly get lost in your thoughts as you wander, before the Norwich based quintet add their full weight to “A Sentinel for the Fragile” with its heavy guitars by Liam Houseago and Jordan Grant, the slow and precise drum beatings by Jorge Figueiredo joined by Shane Amies’s rumbling bass and Daniel Bollans’s low drawn out growls and rasps.

This is the second album by the band that was formed in 2010 and they continue on their path of lengthy doom laden death metal with “In Somnus Ego Morrior (In My Sleep I Die)” clocking in just shy of 13 minutes, where a very MDB feeling guitar lead breaks out just before the song ends.

“An Elegy for the Departed” is also filled with the harmonious tremolo guitars during the interludes between verses where rather abrasive vocals are used rather than the deep roar employed on the other songs.

They end the album off with “To Welcome the Grey”, where the simple bass plucking has slow drum tapping and whispered growls for the first quarter of the song, before it changes to guitar plucking then distorted riffs and the required growls that go with them as the pace of the drumming picks up until everything slows down once more and fades out for the next few minutes.

All in all, it delivers exactly what you’d expect from a doom death band, plenty of slow death riffs and doomy feeling songs that leave you wanting for some levity again.

Author: Marco Gaminara

Review
Between the Lines Media
10/10
29.06.2019

The production on Fragilium is exactly what you would expect for a doom record. Its slow, gritty and loud. But this record takes the speed up a half notch. Usually Doom metal is so low, and creates almost a vision of evil in the listeners mind. But Consecration break traditional Doom molds by speeding it up just a hair. It becomes almost like a down tuned hard rock album. Better yet, it reminds me of Early Black Sabbath. I feel what makes them shine, is how they write as a band. You can tell they stick close to doom metal, but definitely aren’t afraid to do what ever they want. The mix is also typical for Doom metal. The guitars and vocals kind of over power everything. Some of the drum fills get lost in the mix. But, for some reason, it works for this band,

There aren’t really any song structures. No specific chorus or verse, at least from what I can hear. If you know this band, or th genre at all, then you know that these tracks flow like molasses. Slow, but will stick with you forever. When you think of doom metal, what do you expect? Death? Despair? Evil? Thats exactly what I imagine this record has to be about.

Im not entirely huge into doom metal, as I am partial to gutturals and neck breaking breakdowns. But Consecration is one Doom band that I find entrancing. I put this record on at work as background noise. Its absolutely beautiful. No matter what this band puts out, will always be in my rotation. My favorite part is definitely how they seem to expand on their already distorted sound. By picking the speed up just a touch, but also slowing the slow parts by a hair.

Overall, Consecration is becoming one of my favorites. Fragilium is a been of something truly evil, and beautifully captivating, at the same time. By adding a little bit of speed to short parts of their music, it adds a whole new aspect to their already entrancing music. If you’re a fan of doom metal, this record demands a slot in your library.

Review
Blessed Altar Zine
7/10
22.07.2019

Some music seems unattached to any particular setting, or season, or hour or climate. Sometimes songs just exist as they do, to be appreciated when and wherever and to have the listener impose their own experiences and perspectives onto them. Then there is that other category, the music that evokes a strong feeling of its place in our world; maybe it’s a scorching hot summer, or a frozen winter, a quiet, lethargic dawn, or a wild hedonistic evening under the neon lights of a frenetic city centre. Fragilium, the newly released album by English Doom Metal band Consecration is definitely of the latter category. Titles such as “To Welcome The Grey” and “In Darkened Slumber” indicate the kind of world the listener is poised to be drawn into. It’s a world set deep into the night, away from traffic and city lights; some ancient, secluded church and graveyard would probably fit the scene perfectly (in fact the opening track includes what could be a church bell). In any case this is definitely music for the night, for wandering through the fields under a bright moon. It would be nice if I could write this review in such a setting, but unfortunately I have a day job.

Of the five tracks that make up the album, only the opener “In Darkened Slumber” comes in under 10 minutes. The music is not in a hurry to get anywhere; rather the band draws you into a netherworld where sounds drift like mist along a dark river. The sparse instrumentation of the opening track (clear guitar arpeggios, with occasional bass) is soothing; you might not suspect that this will be a metal album. Only when the doom riffing and gravelly Death Metal vocals of “A Sentinel For The Fragile” kick in does the other side of the band becomes apparent. When the band shows their heavier side, the guitar tone especially reminds me of the sick, overdriven sound old school Floridian Death Metal, but with tracks drawn out to a more funerial pace and length.

The contrast between peace and disharmony is most clearly made by the vocals. Whenever these growling, guttural noises burst in, alongside slow to mid-tempo riffing and more aggressive percussion the peaceful spell the band casts is broken. In some ways, this contrast the band plays with is a strength and adds colour to the songs, but while the simplicity of the calmer passages is effective in its soothing qualities, the limited range and raw delivery of the vocals becomes jarring after a while. Listening to this album I wonder from time to time what the music would sound like with a more expressive Hardcore vocal style like Discharge or early Neurosis instead of the gravelly growls. The instrumentation is so effective in transporting me to another place, sometimes even emotive as well as evocative, but the vocals can feel more of a distraction than a fitting addition.

The snappily titled “In Somnus Ego Morrier (In My Sleep I Die)” offers perhaps the most satisfyingly complete musical journey of the album’s five tracks. Starting out with a sparse, crawling drum beat led by an insistent ride rhythm and an expansive bass and guitar melody, the track starts out mournful and emotive until the vocals come in and take the song in a more abrasive direction. The melodic lines are slow and simple and there’s a great descending guitar line. Here the contrast between smooth and harsh guitar tones works well.

Final track “To Welcome The Grey” meanwhile, starts out with a deep guitar into, more reminiscent of Crowbar or Down, with a nice change in some hushed vocals, before the track transitions into something a little reminiscent of ‘A Sun That Never Sets’ era Neurosis (but a really stripped back version of that).

The nocturnal world this music creates for me is appealing and the music is altogether likeable. That being said I feel like it never quite reaches the heights it could. Aside from the fairly limited vocals I mentioned, the production could be fuller and more impactful. Some of the soloing and guitar melodies feel a bit unfocused and doodling. The playing is tight, but I find myself wishing for more surprising melodic twists and some big crushing moments that don’t quite come. Altogether it’s a case of an enjoyable, haunting journey, but a feeling that it could be something more.

Author: Tom