Band:	Bell Witch
Album:	Future's Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate
Style:	Funeral doom metal
Release date:	April 21, 2023
A review by:	X-Ray Rod

01. The Clandestine Gate

First comes dawn. The triumph of light over darkness.

I reached my peak in funeral doom fanaticism in my late teens, at which point I left the genre alone and focused only on some favorite bands. For many years I kept seeing Bell Witch as “this very exciting new band that kept it true and minimal”. And while my opinion of them is well summed up in that sentence alone, they are not new anymore. It has been over a decade since their first demo and I’m living in denial. I guess that feeling of confusion and nostalgia is an appropriate mood for a journey like this one.

The road is long. The road is hard. So I have plenty of time to pick up the pieces. And the pieces I pick up from the floor are the pieces of my very soul. I go back in time. I remember the first time I saw Bell Witch at Roadburn Festival 2015. Adrian Guerra was still very much with us. Not long after that concert tragedy struck. Some time later, the perfect epitaph in the form of Mirror Reaper arose like a wounded yet defiant beast. I had the opportunity to witness it being performed live in its entirety as well, a moment I will not soon forget. To release something else akin to that masterpiece is nothing short of a herculean task. Perhaps that’s why the following work was a collaboration. Stygian Bough: Volume I (a collaboration with the Erik Moggridge-led Aerial Ruin) was perhaps an ideal bridge to ease the listener’s way into Bell Witch’s next proper album.

In any case, I can’t say I was prepared. My first interaction with this album was one I can never replicate. Because Bell Witch performed the album in its entirety for the first time, on the very day it was officially released, at Roadburn Festival 2023. But now I’m home alone. Just trying to pick up the pieces.

That’s how the first part of Future's Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate feels to me. It’s a journey to recover. A journey to rebuild. If Mirror Reaper feels monumentally depressing because it illustrates a tragedy, then Future's Shadow feels monumentally depressing because it illustrates the arduous road forward. Instead of succumbing to crushing despair and agonizing impotence at the hands of fate, Bell Witch’s newest album questions and wanders into new territories. It tries new things and fuses them with memories of the past.

This album relies heavily on synths. From the grand cathedral-size opening to the last dying notes, the omnipotent sound of an organ provides the main foundation of this album. The crushing riffs, imposing drumming, harrowing growls, and angelic clean vocals are all present. But this time around they float and drone around the synths in a way they haven’t done before. Speaking of drone, it does feel like this album is more closely tied to drone and ambient than the previous albums. It even feels slower as if that were even possible at this point. As much as I enjoyed the beautiful and soothing nature of Stygian Bough: Volume I, what my heart really yearned for was to hear Bell Witch just being themselves. In that sense, this is an ideal follow-up to Mirror Reaper. Its introspective nature is to die for and the clever way the organ has been implemented and organically mixed with the crushing doom shows just the kind of exquisite songwriting we’ve come to expect from this duo.

I can’t help but obsess over the fact that this is part one of something, just like with Stygian Bough. On Bell Witch’s bandcamp page, Dylan Desmond reveals that Future’s Shadow will be a triptych of long albums. Dawn, noon, and sundown, with the third part looping around to the first one as to achieve a day cycle. This also confirms my thoughts regarding the album’s artwork, which heavily references Hieronymus Bosch, one of the true masters when it comes to triptychs. The solemn, dark, yet nonthreatening aura of Future's Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate does reflect the darkness that leads to light, just the way it happens at dawn. Yet this album already feels like a complete work so I can’t even begin to imagine what Bell Witch is planning next. One thing is for sure, though: we now have not two but at least three more albums to look forward to (if we count the next part of Stygian Bough). It is fascinating that Dylan Desmond and Jesse Shreibman are able to create massive works of art within the funeral doom metal spectrum and still keep it varied and intriguing despite their minimalist style.

Noon will come soon. What delights will the day offer us?