Salus extra coemeterium non est. — Scythe and tenebrific skeletal hand snaking through the clouds to strangle its peeking eye shut, the last gasp of light cannot wait to be silenced, to cease its siphon upon the hopeful below. Not a single eye graced with its final generative spike through the mercurial choke of the atmosphere at the end, the death of light so follows the grey-sulfuric slurry of storm and fire below. Homogenized and poisoned at once. To describe the moment as funereal wouldn’t suffice, as there is a regenerative aspect to open-air mourning and respects given which push the majority back into the stream of life. Instead a mythic level of torment brews at the moment of apocalyptic death which greets us and frames the state of morbid mindset sustained within this third and most surreal full-length from Helsinki, Finland-based funeral death/doom metal duo Convocation. For the sake of progression in vernacular which is their own, the study of morbidity found on ‘No Dawn For the Caliginous Night‘ likewise concerns itself with suffering, the slow process of enfeeblement and exclusion at the end of life. As such there is more than mourning to be felt within this tension-rich, staggering waltz of organ-fed and death/doom metal girded gloom. As the shapes refine and the maimed spiritus of the album reveals its condition we witness this toppling empyrean vision of extreme doom secure some additional depth and style of its own in the midst.

Convocation formed circa 2016 with little more than dark death metal parameters in mind as engineer, mixer, composer, performer, and cover artist L. Laaksonen, whom is best known for his work in Desolate Shrine, began his collaboration with renowned vocalist Marko Neuman who you should recognize from Sum of R as well as past positions in many avant-garde groups. The results of this was a funeral doom metal act with some death metal adjacent inspiration, something like 90’s Esoteric (Greg Chandler mastered this album, even) and Finnish funeral parties a la Tyranny and Profetus, what I’d consider second generation funeral doom from their region. In hindsight many of their signature traits were already prepared on their full-length debut (‘Scars Across‘, 2018) when I’d reviewed it (#57 on my Best of 2018), from Neuman‘s unique choirs to thier use of ancient funeral death/doom pacing. The general public would pay much closer attention when their second LP (‘Ashes Coalesce‘, 2020) released to broader acclaim (#58 on my Best of 2020) and for good reason per its transfixing, deeply nuanced full listen and enriched production values. Because I have written at length about this band before most of my thoughts today will suggest what is consistent, what is different, and how the mood and ambition of the music has developed in the years between.

DEEPER LISTENING [x]

Desolate Shrine: A death metal band long-driven by L.L.’s machine and an important vision for death metal atmosphere and ambition in the 2010’s as the Finnish death metal scene continued to mature. As they’d shown back in 2022, there is yet more to be done in the realm of riffs and death. For some unique interest check out the first album, ‘Tenebrous Towers‘ (2011) was an divisive record back in the day, Boss HM-2 caverncore?

Candy Cane: From post-punk and space rock experimentation to “Wow, so random” grinding avant-black metal charades this was a truly unique Finnish export from Neuman and crew which’d often gained some mention in relation with Oranssi Pazuzu back in the day. Check out ‘Fay-ra-Doowra‘ (2007)

Disembowelment: While I was quick to point toward the death/doom metal side of Evoken when reviewing early works from Convocation, they’re much more likely to champion Disembowelment as an inspiration based on what I’ve read. ‘Transcendence Into the Peripheral‘ (1993) is one of the biggest revelations I’ve ever received from extreme metal listening.

Organ grinding, chorales at the bank of the Lethe, and a stoic sense of movement it’d seem everything that Convocation‘s first album had attempted in its periphery was better integrated, made whole and delivered with intent on their second album. ‘Ashes Coalesce‘ put my own expectations for ‘No Dawn For the Caliginous Night‘ in a knot as a result as “upping the ante” didn’t seem to make sense, or, might not be as important as producing something different since the “bigger” portion of bigger/better wasn’t necessary. So, yes, we get a third LP and nearly a ~49 minute long funereal opus where the scenery is not as coal-streaked and fuming as it is sombre green-and-grey, dimming down to the last light. The perspective which this album leads with is what I’d consider romanticist, reaching for empyrean loft while crafting tragedian gloom to such a degree that their work takes on a pale readied-to-rot sense of distress. This juxtaposes in estrangement with the ever-escalating ambitions of the musicians to do more and express more within each iteration, or, refinement of their craft, leaving a grand-marbled scene of epic proportioned movements which us unwilling to break the lock they have upon the attentive listener’s ear.

From their cathedral windows shatters a black plume of sorrow, pollution which knows no chill to the point that it makes for a restless, anxietous experience which begins to feel ruinous with some immediacy as the intensity of Neuman‘s growls on opened “Graveless Yet Dead” are felt, not only observed by pulled from the scars of the lungs. A dead choir is soon arisen amidst a lumbering low doom metal riff which meanders in unsteady shamble as the rhythms convey devastation which is chaotic, ominous as the quad-toned lead guitar’s escalating count beside the larger drift of the rhythm. I’m not sure if the string section and choir are emulated throughout the album, as they are a huge part of most pieces, but I do know that celloist Antti Poutanen features as a key layer of this opening piece as well as the instrumental focus of “Between Aether and Land” and closer “Procession”. In the past the humble, deadpan omen of funeral doom was a matter of tradition exaggerated in Convocation‘s hands but here on ‘No Dawn For the Caliginous Night‘ their work now becomes a death-lead orchestra in ode to cataclysm and crumbling fortitudes. The height, or, most memorable integration of these elements is arguably “Atychiphobia” for its bristling introduction (and later reprise) where we get a Hammond-esque organ and crushing death/doom in sprawling and hammered down scene beyond the ~6:50 minute mark.

Thrilling as it is to sum a ten minute funeral death/doom metal piece in a couple of warped sentences… describing the atmosphere generated by ‘No Dawn For the Caliginous Night‘ as it sits apart from past works while still in relation might have to be resigned to crumbling firmament, empyrean collapse, a sense of sophistication and deeply layered works which are not stoically grand but toppling with the violent pulses of Convocation‘s death-attuned rhythms. The chaos of divinity crumbling and the suffering of the damned are equitant in depiction, harrowing and uneasy to a most powerful degree on my particular favorite piece “Lepers and Derelicts”, where the absolute discord of ~6:05-6:25 leads to one of the most off-kilter yet inspired outbursts of riff about ten seconds later as the ship struggles to right itself within a couple repetitions. While there are more memorable pieces on the album throughout that’d been the point where the whole of the experience felt its most severe madness and majesty at once. That said, we’ve still “Procession” to contend with, an equally elaborate and expressive piece with guest vocalists (Jason Netherton of Misery Index, Samantha Schuldiner of Ferum) providing their own narration for the cumulative statement which arises within, something oddly cinematic per gothic doom metal. Of course the first thing that comes to mind as the album ends with its morbid chamber quartet of doom drifting away is that this type of composition is both on the verge of something deeply original but not that far from the more rote gothic funeral doom metal pathos, too. Either way it feels like a new skin, new possibilities breaking through in full as the larger arc completes.

The soul screamed out of the flesh, the body dissolved, and here the passage beyond comes with the weight of eternity pressing upon every riff and roar. There is a dizzying sensation which comes along with the impulse of ‘No Dawn For the Caliginous Night‘, a gasping and all-in enormity achieved where the sense of space inhabited is outrageous yet the music itself is sombre, serious as it is diabolic in its expression. There may be familiar aspects of funeral death/doom and extreme doom metal within the skeletal framing of Convocation‘s work but here the intrigue and the horror of the endtime achieve a scale which feels like a freshly achieved height per the goals of these fellowes, even when compared to the brilliancies of past work. So far the listening experience has well-proven itself both overwhelming and satisfyingly dreadful whenever I find myself lost in its lustre. A high recommendation.

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