Fantasies of bygone grandeur, impossibly long-delayed revenge and a future lost to unnamed nemesis collectively pock the landscape of a subconscious set to maximum yearn on this ruggedly triumphal sophomore full-length album from Los Angeles, California-based black metal project OLDOWAN GASH. Melancholia appears to overtake the fever of the clash as ‘1000 Dreams of War‘ yields tragedian affect and epic stance throughout this no-less measured but all the more dire second coming. Though there is plenty enough fire to be burnt by within the majority of their work pans out and scales up for rawly cinematic effect without losing the tightened riff-forward command one’d expect beyond their debut.

Oldowan Gash is the longest developed amongst the small handful of squarely black metal projects The Forlorn Spirit (Ablazen Winds, Baphomancia) has amassed since 2016 or so. The style of his work has varied from point-to-point, accumulating between the triumphal, punkish and distraught stance of North American and French black metal of the late 2000’s ’til early 2010’s. You’ll get the most scene-specific trudging through those ideals per his first two EPs, ‘Until the Bees Return…‘ b/w ‘The Maiden’s Tower‘ both of which were revealed in 2018 but were obviously developed in that specific order. The former EP developed a distantly floated atmospheric ideal and wandering riff-hand not so removed from the dreaming edge of eastern European yesteryears black metal factions and the latter EP rallied both punk informed movement and richer rhythmic voice around a stronger melodic ideal, a far less primitive result that’d presented a standard relevant to their eventual debut LP.

Some considerable leap in concept, melodic voice and execution prompted Oldowan Gash‘s signage to Drakkar Productions for their debut album (‘Hubris Unchained‘, 2020) where human-handed session drums (EPs were TFS on an electronic drum kit, as far as I know) and far more sophisticated songcraft impressed at the time. Though there are literally countless black metal bands who play around with strident, uplifting melodic tropes set alongside melancholic refrain theirs was well machined, sharply dramatic in its telegraph and texturally rugged enough to overlook the uninteresting diction of the vocals otherwise. It was an above-average debut which smartly flowed between each ideal presented unto a strong triumphal thread. Over half a decade later expectations are actually pretty high as the band’ve undertaken some live touring and put their name out there in the years since, suggesting they’d be all the more oiled up for a second record.

Right off the jump we are greeted to a devolved drum sound as opener “Catechism of Shame Pt. I” showcases session/live drummer Longinus flatly blasting over the majority of the seven and a half minute salvo upon introduction. That drum capture makes a bit more sense once they’ve slowed to a roll ~3:21 minutes in and thrown in a few fills and (eventually) rock into a coldly spanked punk beat but the absolute rally of the song doesn’t compare to the nuance of ‘Hubris Unchained‘ outright. That said every other element of the duo’s sound has been polished into fresh resonance with great attention paid to the rhythm guitar tone layers as well as the placement of the bass guitar as it worms within the cacophony created at the center of the mix, supporting but also diverging throughout in order to chase various melodic movements.

The consistency of voice, or retention of dramatic tonality carried between the opener and the title track (“1000 Dreams of War”) offers some general argument as to why Oldowan Gash‘s name is worth repeating though fans of ‘Hubris Unchained‘ and its overall density of ideas might find these pieces comparatively disparate, almost relaxed in stride by comparison. This only feeds the oddly warm, severe yet ragged atmospheric demeanor of their performances as the Forlorn Spirit‘s altogether improved venomous vocals snarl to the point of near exasperation within his narrative, an oft unflinching performance well characterized within “Brides of Orlok”. The first three pieces, presumably Side A, all appear fairly related in placement and flow one after another in thoughtful form.

The second half ‘1000 Dreams of War‘ embraces even more of an ‘epic’ station between its two longform pieces wherein the extended intro to “Catechism Of Shame (Word Of Magic) Pt. II” builds it up into one of the most profound pieces on the full listen and the ~fourteen minute “Fighting Forever” intends to be the peaking statement, the grand finale of the experience. Granted the closer is one of the more melancholic stretches on the album which appears to be a reflection of endless psychic conflict, spiritual warfare as the band put it, suiting the vaguely poeticized theme of the album extremely well. Thought we are left in the doldrums beyond a number of horrified screams and growls throughout the last five minutes of the album it provides effective enough closure to the experience.

Though my first spin of ‘1000 Dreams of War‘ read as roughshod, somewhat jank compared to prior indoctrination the tenth approach yielded some strong fealty to the author’s balance of melodrama, empower, and punkish noisome wreckage. Though Oldowan Gash revealed themselves as meticulous if not particularly technically adept on their earliest releases here their sense of composition allows for remarkably lucid anthemic gesturing throughout, a temperament which further characterizes their work as admirably more concerned with conveyance than the usual bland precision gloss (or half baked nonage) of modern hobby grade black metal. There is an increasingly leathered craftsman’s hand applied to this work which I’d greatly appreciated the more familiar I became with the larger thread expressed. A high recommendation.

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