Embracing emergent and ungainly movement from within a harrowing tunnel of traditional traits Los Angeles, California-based death metal quartet APPARITION return as an altogether meditated-upon entity, a more original configuration who begin to grow their claws and horns here on this sophomore full-length album. ‘Disgraced Emanations From a Tranquil State‘ continues to toy with the rare atmospheric dynamism of certain 90’s death metal built planes of interest and amidst an evolution away from high-level riff salad toward stylized craft which also includes jammed and/or seemingly improvised movements in short and long form as an additional point of interest. This helps pull the band’s work out of the usual ‘new old school’ death metal junk drawer and elevates it within still mounting distinction.

Apparition formed at some point in or prior to 2019, I believe as a duo to start between vocalist/drummer Andrew Morgan and lead guitarist (and initially) bassist Miles McIntosh as they’d begin to shape 90’s death metal traits and techniques into their own ideation, tending toward atmospheric and off-kilter movement. Their professional associations beyond a short demo tape (‘Subarachnoid Space‘, 2019) and a more distinct 7″ (‘Granular Transformation‘, 2020) would generally pull from the Los Angeles death metal/hardcore scenery with bands like Deadbody and Spinebreaker in the periphery of past and present members. By the time their debut full-length album (‘Feel‘, 2021) released it was clear they were not headed in that particular direction and instead continued to aim for a very polished, booming-ass example of the ‘new old school’ death metal we’d been getting in droves throughout the second half of the 2010’s. From my point of view then, upon review, and now there was a bit of Disma and some of Tomb Mold‘s swagger on that record but a lot of what they were getting right off the bat kind of came across as a stylistic salad of riffs from various niches of early 90’s death metal translated into a more atmospheric form, not exactly caverncore or cavebro clique stuff but conscious of each. I recall listening to that debut album to death but never finding a quick and reasonable enough way to sum its parts.

Taking the hyper-collective katamari of the first album and making more focused choices in terms of characterizing features most of ‘Disgraced Emanations From a Tranquil State‘ still reads as a general exploration of best-liked traits from 90’s death metal but now with direct consideration for the sludgiest, most blunt points of doomed confrontation in juxtaposition with the disarray of early progressive death metal. A surreal and grimy event with a cavernous menace in hand and an alienated sway to its movement the full listen is best characterized as showcase of vested interest, an appreciation for classic forms given new skin, a textured and sometimes unpredictable array which is once again deepened by quality sound design. The general production values are one place to start, as (now bassist) Taylor Young‘s (Twitching Tongues, The Pit Studio) recording, mix and Nick Townsend‘s master are reprised as returning roles on this second album, adapting to a darker and more abstracted vision this time around which calls for more definition to the bass frequencies and crispier register of the mids while also allowing for some considerable brightness for when those shimmering funeral death/doom cleans reach for maximum doom (see: “Asphyxcreation“). Otherwise the big reference to make this time around hits in a most obvious way once the second or third of six pieces hits down the road.

“Imminent Expanse of Silence and Not (or Not)” was the piece to first catch my ear, not only for its snarling asthenosphere-tuned guitar tone but for its focus on dual rhythm guitar arrangements which present relatively challenging, loose-cut movement already presenting the core aspects of Morbid Angel at their most brutally mid-paced. This is still in line with much of what they were doing on the first LP but taken to a new extreme in terms of sitting still a bit more and building mood rich enough to follow. They do so by way of ringing chords and mosquito-level buzzed keys as the piece ripens amidst the kicking brutality of the song to start eventually finishing the song with a collapsing jammed feeling outro. This song should be enough to convince anyone who’d gone in assuming a somewhat superficial modern day USDM bro-down treatment of the classics that there is a real attempt at a personalized and well-developed character here on ‘Disgraced Emanations From a Tranquil State‘, a cryptic and doubly dark experience beyond ‘Feel‘.

The music stops, the dancers turn. — From that point things get weird in the best way possible as “Paradoxysm” introduces a funereal prog-death sprawl to the equation, taking the tension out of the late 90’s death metal aggression at the core of their rhythms and (eventually) presenting walking speed post-‘Independent Thought Patterns‘ riffs as its final third steps into a more abstract pool of movement. If you aren’t necessarily recognizing this admixture right off the bat the polyrhythmic barging and chord-bent slime of “Excruciating Refuge in Reoccurring Torment” should reinforce this observation therein. At this point the worst thing the average listener could do is blaze through these songs without giving some due attention to the detail cut into each as they burn by quick and the major substantive portion of the album is basically complete before the overall thought presented between the cavernous and the progressive is completely resolved though one could argue “Excruciating Refuge…” does well to anchor the album at that point. In a more traditional (as in peak CD era) sense this feels like a proper first half of a death metal album though it ends up being about seventy percent of the LP.

The lead bending whalesong noise and jammed ambiance of “Inner Altitudes, Light Transference” expands upon the class avant-death guitar noise found at the end of “Imminent Expanse of Silence and Not (or Not)”, one of the more interesting conceptions introduced in the first half and now expanded upon fully within the second half. This does well to break up the weirding tension produced by the first four pieces on the full listen and helps to stretch the length of the album away from a loaded mLP. The finale (“Circulacate”) which follows is predicated by some indication that its outro is an intentional tribute to Anders Nyström (noted as Blackheim of Katatonia) in terms of its late-song lead guitar medley (the blip is the central melody from “Without God”). Surprisingly enough this piece could be considered a death metal jam, the bones of a song are yet to be personalized in full, and an odd conclusion to this sophomore full-length. There is some danger in this final act feeling less serious than the rest of the album but the raw edge of the endpoint adds to the sensation of irrational unraveling conveyed overall. Otherwise, I wouldn’t necessarily complain about ~40 seconds of leads copped from ‘Dance of December Souls‘, a favorite album of mine, though I’m not a hundred percent sure it fits within the context of the full listen.

Though they’re not likely to wholly alienate anyone who’d loved their debut LP with this second album Apparition have made a bit of a conceptual leap when it comes to tapping into the core of their sound and extracting a completely different experience and overall feeling this time around, one which holds fast to the brutal yet atmospheric spectrum of classic death metal but also stretches those boundaries with some modern surrealist exaggerations and expectation breaking jammed looseness to round out the discomfort generated. The balance of old weirding riffs and new-era atmosphere makes for an effective listen which never disrespects the classics by plainly emulating them, excepting one colorful guitar melody near the end. Those seeking new pathways with respect to the channels carved in the past should appreciate the balance of the arcane and the newly inventive here on ‘Disgraced Emanations from a Tranquil State‘ though I would include the one caveat that I believe this is still in the realm of transitional growth and they’ve plenty of potential to refine and more leaps to take in the future. As is, a highly compelling but not entirely complete thought. A high recommendation.

---