Shores of Null and Convocation combine their pain.
Brought together by Everlasting Spew Records, the two bands each have a different vision of Doom, which they showcase on their split album, Latitudes of Sorrow.
We begin with the first three tracks by the Italians, starting with An Easy Way, which weaves a dissonant yet melancholic sound on the guitars of Gabriele and Raffaele, while Davide (vocals) shows us both his raw growl and his more ethereal clean vocals. The rhythm section, led by Matteo (bass) and Emiliano (drums), tempers the melodic flights of fancy, bringing us back to slower tones such as those of The White Wound, which also features intoxicating harmonics. The vocal alternation remains at the heart of the song, coloring its riffs with its presence and shifting it from rage to tranquility despite the explosion of the instrumental, and the captain guides his ship through the waves of sorrow, tirelessly reciting his lament before collaborating with Marko “MN” Neuman (Waste of Space Orchestra, ex-Dark Buddha Rising) on The Year Without Summer. While Davide sings alone at first, the guest’s screams make the song incredibly more aggressive, creating an intense contrast between the two moments before handing over to the Finns for Abaddon’s Shadow, where Lauri “LL” Laaksonen (all instruments) delivers to MN and Kari Kankaanpää (vocals, Sepulchral Curse, ex-Solothus, ex-Yawning Void) and Matti Mäkelä (lyrics, Corpsessed, Tormentor Tyrant) a suffocating darkness. The icy and anguished tones multiply on this long track, and the abrasive riffs, as on The Empty Room, where the Finnish band progresses as a duo and displays a more majestic melancholy, different but just as haunting, which breaks for a moment before returning accompanied by keyboards to offer us a grandiose finale and thus close the split.
Doom and darkness take center stage with Latitudes of Sorrow, bringing together two underground bands with complementary styles under the same banner. While Shores of Null knows how to be both aggressive and melancholic, Convocation sticks to its slow aggression to win us over. Both bands are becoming sure bets on the scene.
90/100