The reinvention of Theophonos in exile from past-life avatar Serpent Column has thus far served as more direct personal representation of the artist though you’ll have to stare a bit harder at the motion-blurred out of focus strafing THEOPHONOS does in fusion and abstraction of latent avant-garde black metal traits to see the imposing figure’s reflection across the muddy, twitching waters of their second full-length album, ‘Ashes in the Huron River‘. The inevitably outcome beyond a reinvention of the self is some manner of reversion into a realm of comfort or past gloriam, no one makes such easy “progress”, yet this details obsessed Detroit, Michigan-area artist only becomes more pragmatic with each step taken into this realm of his own. The patented storm of anxious rupture one’d want to hear when pursuing this name is yet here but within deeper streaks of chaotic hardcore, post-hardcore and plenty else all of which serves to blend the experience into admixture of tragedian sentiment and surreal witness, ultimately allowing its scope to broaden beyond prior achievements. As our blood pressure builds in spiking rushes before slowly fading into circularly wandering thoughts this album reads as a slow-shuttered sense of hope, a fatalistic marvel upon the dissolution of sanity amidst the loss of place and the the sense of security territory provides.

Theophonos first hit the public ear (as Theophilos) back in 2017 but formed Serpent Column circa 2015 having been inspired to pursue a level of skill and expression available to contemporary music of the late 2000’s and first half of the 2010’s. Throughout the next few years the project delivered three increasingly chaotic and wrathful full-lengths with addendums, or, diversions provided by one mLP release in between each. Rather than eulogize this consistently fraying, over the top output… as a fan, I’d been relieved that the thought was finally considered complete beyond 2021 as I’d no real words left for the method beyond 2020’s ‘Endless Detainment‘. The punctuation provided by the endpoint of the project was profound enough yet I wasn’t so surprised that Theophonos‘ debut LP (‘Nightmare Visions‘, 2023) released a couple of years later, cutting back at the veneer and releasing the strictures of sub-genre which his prior project had both fought with and thrived within depending on the album. Likewise there was some concern on my part that a more personal journey might be even more destructive but the key note to take is that, for now, this rebirth would be compositionally direct which is a simple way of suggesting readability rather than outright accessibility. Anyhow, you can read my thoughts and extrapolation of that record in my review of it as well as within brief thoughts as I placed it at #66 on my Top 75 Albums of the Year for 2023.

Whereas the previous album served as a logical transition, carving a new channel into the freshened tributaries of Theophonos with some revisited techniques and wherewithal taken from the striking nodes of ‘Mirror in Darkness‘ (2019) a cacophonic record which caught the ears of folks familiar with the heavier spectrum of chaotic hardcore (Converge is the easiest general route) as well as the bedraggled movement of screamo and what I’d consider the evolutionary steps between late 90’s metalcore toward mathcore. That isn’t to say that they’d blackened up auld Zao and Botch rhythms to a maniac degree but that there are shared aspects of that specific record and ‘Nightmare Visions‘ that fans of self-interruptive, cathartic and over-acted “core” muse would instantly recognize. I’ve taken the time to explain this thought again, potentially with diminishing returns on my part, for the sake of suggesting that ‘Ashes in the Huron River‘ continues to delve into both motion and texture which readily embraces those points of inspiration and uses them as a readable anchor. The best example of this up front is “No Reprieve”, a blackened distraught-core chugger beyond the typewriter swerved dissonant rushes (re: Thantifaxath) of opener “The Built World”. There are equal parts self-deconstruction and a tempered hand for classic rhythmic stop-gap ideas applied here in the opening moments of this sophomore record which do well to challenge the flow of the mind, presenting a multitude of riffs before the piston-fire begins to hit.

The engines are yet primed as “Curse Envy” continues down this path of tightly structured yet shakingly delivered riffs present simple boxed-in shapes in an exaggerated fashion, ultimately framing the far more sophisticated (or, calculated) grooves of “Willing Power” with a starter motif to build from. The stinging clangor of the two major guitar voices provided is cutting, abrasive but sharply directive enough to break through the resonant bursting of each instrument. Sans any notable bass guitar tone which presents a far low-set growl offering additional definition the textural wrath of the guitar work here is emphasized by repetitive motions, progressions and outright cyclic riffs which rouse a dementia in the midst of our introduction to the first half of ‘Ashes in the Huron River‘. From my point of view this carbonized guitar sound and it wobbly effect it takes on in descending movements best illustrates the post-apocalyptic landscape, the destruction of comfort and place taking place within the witness of change for the worse in the eyes of the protagonist. The theme of this album continues to extrapolate the idea of change by force, self-destruction and regret for what once was, going nuclear on a situation and/or accepting a loss of control. In the process of this “Grid of Sorrows” is the hinge point, the motion in another direction we’d find as the third act in the density of a single song on a later Serpent Column album spread between about three pieces here.

If I were only taking into account the first half of this album, everything before “An Elegy” more-or-less, I’d have found it novel and a meaningful directional push beyond ‘Nightmare Visions‘ but little compositional growth beyond admirable patience and self-reinforcing flair applied. The taste of the individual is fully on display as is the knack but the material itself doesn’t begin to crash its car through my living room and howl at the moon ’til “An Elegy” gives way to the exceptional title track (“Ashes in the Huron River”) which is for my own taste where the melodic black metal ideas meet up with post-hardcore level bumps in the road, a ride through streaming rhythms in sentimental merger. The sensation of the music took me a few places at its dramatic peak, though some of the movements have a foreboding ‘…and So the Night Became‘-esque tinge the first dramatic peak of this kind isn’t likely rooted in classics-era black metal at all. In fact while I was thinking of different shades of Mgła and Sargeist for some of the movements on the second half of the full listen Theophonos references a certain era of Death Grips and even Pelican for the additional turn taken on standout “Still You Haunt Me”, smartly looking outside of underground metal cannibalism for sustenance. Somewhere between the hum of rotten doom and celebration the tone of this second half of ‘Ashes in the Huron River‘ does well to balance the differently confrontational starter set.

Having paraded our wounded bodies across this cataclysmic wasteland scene for just over forty minutes there is a tone of satisfaction, as much as can be mustered by the milling mind of the auteur, which is taxing yet rewarding in witness much in the same way that ‘Ornuthi Thalassa‘ had been to me back in 2017. Just as they’d vetted from the cracked-open mind palace drawn up for the cover of ‘Nightmare Visions‘ the Hafsteinn Viðar Ársælsson (Wormlust, et al.) penned illustrations for this album spill from said devastated landscape while still implicating a clear path woven into the carbonized muck. At this point, taking it all in, I am back in the unsteady place where the artist seems to present their best, clearly-stated high standards applied to fastidious works which intend to loosen the strictures of classic forms in unpredictable ways. I’m still unsure what they’ll do next where that path leads its anxietous hand and I greatly appreciate the returned sensation of challenging conceptual work which likewise retains some readable, communicative nature be it trundling riffcraft or verbose symbolist prose. A high recommendation.

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