Conjurer‘s second album has dropped.
Formed in 2014 in England, the band consisting of Dan Nightingale (guitar/vocals, ex-Obsessed by Cruelty), Brady Deeprose (guitar/vocals), Jan Krause (drums, ex-Esoteric), and Conor Marshall (bass, Sylosis, ex-Obsessed by Cruelty) released a debut album in 2018 and then signed with Nuclear Blast to announce the release of Páthos in 2022.
The album opens with It Dwells, a composition which presents us a gentle introduction before letting the abrasive riffs strike with some catchy groove. Screams perfectly fit with the explosive but quite melodic chaos which lets clean tones come back to create a throbbing contrast before Rot comes to offer an oppressive progression. The track is slower and more warlike, revealing a new side of raw but complex aggressiveness, then All You Will Remember briefly allows us to breathe before revealing an oppressive, dissonant and unexpected sound. Clean voice meets wild screams to feed a bit more this contrast which continues with soaring melodies and a sampled voice, then the final blast gives way to Basilisk. Once again, the track begins quietly but saturation is never this far, and it brings with it an oppressive dimension which also develops the jerky and heavy Prog-oriented parts, then Those Years, Condemned reveals us a heady melody which will follow us for a while. Vocals become almost plaintive, sometimes morphing the leads into a light lament before the jerky parts let the sound drive us to the « short » Suffer Alone and its Grindcore influences. Pure violence, dissonance and raw screams come together before In Your Wake and its dull slowness. Saturated voices easily come to life in those waves of darkness, which also let majestic melodies bewitch us before hitting us again, and the nothingness gives way to Cracks In The Pyre, the last song, and its sweetness which will be short-lived. The band will crush us again under its saturation while injecting its melancholy straight to our veins before leaving us scarred.
Conjurer mixes its waves of abrasive saturation with various influences on Páthos, making it an amazing and unexpected force. The band can easily crush us, but they can also amaze or hypnotize us with ease.
95/100