Loviatar - Loviatar album review

Named after a mythological death goddess, Canadians Loviatar retreated into the woods to record their debut full-length, summoning a loose, natural approach to their obvious post-rock/doom influences. They effectively imbue the first three, thematically connected tracks with the restless, undulating characteristics of the Stygian Wyrm on which they’re based. Opener Nascent’s verdant expanse of lush magical flourishes, organic sounding drums and twinkling acoustic guitars build to the voluminous riffs and solos of Discordant. This is hard rock raised on a diet of doom, perfectly complementing vocalist JD’s soaring range. The triumphant refrains of Ascendant round out the record’s first half, a victory tinged at its edges with sadness. A swirling miasma then coalesces into the gracious stomp of Blind Goddess Of The Nine Plagues – a 19-minute epic that explores darker passages, descending into a chaos of blasts only to once again emerge melancholic in victory. Succeeding as more than a sum of its parts, this is the closest Loviatar have come to creating a mythology of their own.