OCCULTATION – Silence in the Ancestral House

‘Silence in the Ancestral House’ serves up fifty minutes of echoing, nostalgic, progressive doom that soars across genre boundaries on night-dark wings. The vocals are ethereal and concern themselves as much with maintaining the atmosphere as with driving the melodies. The fact that they are 100% clean and 100% female is… er… 100% welcome in my book. In a world where metal vocals sometimes seems to be in a race to some growly, gravelly least common denominator it is a breath of fresh air and a sign of hope that bands like Occultation can think outside the thorny boundary walls that have grown around them. Ed from Negative Plane does an understated but standout job on guitar. Firstly, he avoids the ‘let’s rehash the chords from Sweet Leaf’ trap that has plagued the doom movement from day 1. In fact, much of the heavy lifting is done by the bass, leaving Ed room to lay down memorable leads that sometimes drive the song forward and at other times explore the confines of the musical space, adding depth and creating moments of emotion and impact.
Ominous, occult and wholly original, ‘Silence in the Ancestral House’ offers an authentic slice of proto-doom that feels like it was crafted in an age before rock, doom, metal and prog all became different and sometimes exclusive camps. Better still, while extremely accessible, ‘Silence in the Ancestral House’ is still interesting and stimulating after more than a dozen listens, still serving up surprises and revealing hidden depths. Definitely set to be one of the highs of the year for Invictus.

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