What’s behind the mysterious German project Galvornhathol?
Created over twenty years ago by musician C (Pissbucket, RodtGod, Dickcutter, ex-Disinfect, ex-Doom of Lilith…), its first release only dates back to 2020. In 2025, album III is announced.
Melancholy takes possession of our minds right from Voids, the first composition, but it soon takes on an oppressive darkness even before the first terrifying growls haunt the scene. Although the vocals are eventually transformed into something deeper, the riffs remain misty until The Hunter follows with a touch of dissonance, making the track totally different from the previous one, although its ethereal base persists. There’s a light blaze before the gentle finale, which leads to the soothing Spirals and its harmonics that twirl above a tortured basis, whether with saturation or the clean sound that leads to Sternentanz, which in turn hypnotizes us before its rhythmic build-up becomes truly unhealthy. Neptun‘s unusually mellow, clear vocals are quickly identifiable in German, giving it a certain visceral aggression (the usual non-German speaking cliché) that perfectly matches its coldness, unlike Long Way Home, which immediately introduces more energetic patterns and in turn captures us in its dark ocean, albeit a little too short. A new lull comes with the introduction of Andromeda, which finally leads us into its sonic haze from which cries and harmonics emerge, before quickly giving way to the aptly named Nebulae and its vaporous touches that metamorphose into intriguing, rather gentle melodies, but Laniakea takes over the rhythmic reins and infuses it with a rather communicative energetic touch, albeit entirely instrumental. The track is relatively different from its predecessors, but the atmosphere returns to a much more soothing level with the luminous sound of Solaris, which surprises us on the finale with an ultimately rather simple tone that breaks abruptly to make way for Asymptote, the final composition where gentleness is preferred to welcome this disquieting sampled voice and its rather… pessimistic discourse.
I rarely say this, but III is too short. While I understand the album’s potential, I would have preferred Galvornhathol to have taken the time to develop certain passages rather than stringing tracks and moods together. I’ll probably come back to it next time.
70/100