Uncounted hours are lost within torturous depictions of a mind in unwholesome condition as Lyndhurst, New Jersey-based funeral doom/death metal quintet EVOKEN envision a troubled soul yearning for relief constituted by direct contact with “God”… yet the only being conjured is malevolent, prone to twist the knife within, on this seventh full-length album from the band. The spirit of this work is entirely dependent on the echoic mind of its antagonist being confined to four walls as ‘Mendacium‘ forces its narrative within a cavernous yet cinematically charged illustration of dire inner voice. Within the hourlong funereal entrancement of this event all senses are willingly enrobed in the cowl of its possession, particularly if your taste veers toward the thrilling excesses of their station in the early 2000’s, as this album radiates beyond belief with the band’s yet untouchable atmospheric death metal signature.

Evoken appeared downstream of Funereus one of, if not the earliest death/doom metal band from New Jersey who’d released a couple of demos in 1992 before key members pivoted to a different sound in 1994, naming themselves in reference to an early Thergothon tape. At the time they’d few contemporaries in that immediate area where maybe Cerberus (pre-Symphony of Grief) offered something similarly stoked by underground extreme doom, New York death metal and gothic metal while groups like Ceremonium and Rigor Sardonicus were/are very much their own thing. I emphasize this part of the band’s past to illustrate the death/doom metal locus of their invention, what they’d absorbed and what they’d made their own from those surroundings. Though it has been many years you might recall I’d scoured the history of the band a bit in review of their sixth LP (‘Hypnagogia‘, 2018) which also hit #2 on my 50 Best of 2018… and as such I won’t fully delve into every detail here but rather emphasize the unique station of the band in the late 90’s/early 2000’s as one of very few notable funeral doom metal troupes curating pure death metal, or, serious death/doom metal movements into their sound.

Slugged-out slow burning death/doom metal gave way to a new, impossibly sombre ideal in gothic doom stoked funeral doom in Evoken‘s hands as their post-millennial streak became increasingly exaggerative per voluminous production values afforded ‘Quietus‘ (2001) and darker death/doom derangement on ‘Antithesis of Light‘ (2005), both of which I count as all-time favorites to this day. This was arguably where their mark was made permanent beyond the periphery of the underground between two very different records, the former bearing its own dark gothic monument and the latter conjuring a rare example of Disembowelment-esque furor. You’d do well to investigate/revisit each album today for the sake of ‘Mendacium‘ being suggested as a call back to the sound design and verve they’d sort of “cleaned up” on the three LPs released since. This also comes alongside involvement from producer/musician Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal who reprises his role extracting unreal sounds from the band for this new album. All of these notes should’ve sparked in mind some expectation of the band’s dark, distant past to be channeled within the surrealistic haunt of this new record.

From the first shudder of the guitar found on opener “Matins” your intestines should grip the gut, eyelids should claw at the eyes against supernatural gravity as the anxious approach of ‘Mendacium‘ almost appears as if it actually were pulled from Evoken‘s late 90’s/early 2000’s transition, drum sound and all. Chasm-wriggling guitar tones fog downward amidst gloomy keys, deadpan prose, piano interruptus and an impossible amount of reverb lending brilliant cacophony to every hit. The way I would describe the sound design here is exactly how you remember the band sounded, but actually didn’t, back in the day as they’ve depicted a much deeper upward-echoing pit for this album. This comes in strong contrast with the immediate, brightly struck impact of ‘Hypnagogia‘ which’d been suitable for more of a melodic death/doom metal focus at the time.

That first ~ten minute hit of Evoken will be enough to sell the whole deal to existing fans, I don’t think they’ve missed a beat in that sense as the cathedral-bound step of “Lauds” will only deepen said possession with its hypnotic call-and-response to start and neoclassical guitar inspired tail to end. This is where the part of my brain that thirsts after anything ‘Antithesis of Light‘-adjacent is most sated but it isn’t necessarily the only type of impact found within the full ~63 minute colonnade on offer as each of the four remaining pieces reach a similar point of profundity while also making further distance from death/doom metal movement. I’d specifically point to the duo of “Sext” and key single “None” as an equally resonant grouping with the former’s extended development of dissonantly creeping-in soundscape and the latter’s slow reprisal of doomed movements proving equally excruciating in their patient dramatism. This portion of the album does ultimately begin to feel samey on repeat listens, especially sidled up nearby the harder hit “Terce” but the flow of it all lands with such fixation that I’d just as well seen it through on each pass.

Parsing the psychic journey, what is true malevolent possession and what is all in our protagonist’s head, will have to wait for the lyric sheet proper on my end but the greater verve of ‘Mendacium‘ inspires wonderment via both empyreal and lightless tonality. Through foreboding entrance and distraught exit a natural bookending is formed between the more riveting death-gloom of the opening and closing moments of the album, allowing Evoken‘s work to register as a complete thought per the draining jog into dementia offered by closer “Compline”. Without this final piece I’d have considered much of the second half of this double LP meandering in its own rift, lost in orchestrating the cinematic aspect of its narrative, instead a plateau of lost and demented sensations are illustrated before the rapturous doom of the end.

It is worth mention that none of this latest Evoken album’s shape, and none of the charm of the band’s work to date, will likely sink into mind without the patient fortitude of the listener intact and their soul’s willingness to be flattened. ‘Mendacium‘ does admittedly come from one of the more actively voiced and sonically rich funeral doom metal bands, ever, but a real-ass adult attention span is yet a requirement which will quickly weed out the average phone-swiping social media addict from its dust-coughing cathedralesque wiles. With this thought glowing in mind their work still bears its own glorious rarity, a connection with the surreal which cannot be ground into commercial glom and as such remains intoxicating to witness in motion. Their work continues to stand apart from imitation and worship as each passing song makes a case, in albeit ominously stated terms, for the enduring singularity of their voice and the high standard applied to every aspect of it. A highest possible recommendation.

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