Band:	Chrch
Album:	Light Will Consume Us All
Style:	Doom metal, Sludge metal
Release date:	May 2018

01. Infinite Return
02. Portals
03. Aether

Who ever said that doom metal needed to be oppressively crushing and heavy to be good? Chrch sure didn't.

The little U.S. five piece that is Chrch made a small though considerate impact with their Unanswered Hymns debut back in 2015. Three years later, Light Will Consume Us All more or less sees them building upon the formula they've already established for themselves: slow paced doom with a particular penchant for melody and atmosphere. Fans of female fronted doom such as Windhand, Avatarium, etc. are likely to be right at home here, as the powerful, majestic wails of frontwoman Eva Rose help guide the tracks here to their climaxes. Moments such as the latter half of "Infinite Return," or the opening of "Portals," are easily some of the best on the album.

Yet Chrch's music, while far from being terrible, at times feels as though it's missing something, some greater level of immersion that would make it slightly more attractive and ensnaring. The melodic, more relaxed moments on Light Will Consume Us All are without doubt the most alluring aspect of the album, but they can often feel a bit unsustained, as though Chrch would benefit more by stretching them out longer or by simply ditching the more conventional, riff heavy doom approach and focusing entirely on a more formless, atmospheric approach. In short, the more "epic" moments on this album, while certainly gripping, could afford to receive more focus and be fleshed out a bit more, perhaps to the point of even taking precedence over the other dimensions of Chrch's sound.

While not mindblowing, Light Will Consume Us All is a worthy follow up to Chrch's debut that had already gathered the band a fair amount of attention in underground metal circles. Pounding and riff heavy at some points, more mellow and restrained at others, the album strikes a fine balance between the more hard hitting and the more dreamlike aspects of doom metal. Though their formula could still use a bit of refinement, Chrch definitely seem to be on the right track.

Go get consumed.