Band:	Wreck Of The Hesperus
Album:	The Sunken Threshold
Style:	Funeral doom metal, Sludge doom metal
Release date:	2006
A review by:	KwonVerge

01. Stop The Black Coffins
02. Grave Signal
03. The Osseous Tomb (Echoes Of Winter)

Wreck Of The Hesperus hail from Ireland and their debut album, "The Sunken Threshold" is finally out via Aesthetic Death records and allow me to say that it has been one of the most beautiful surprises of the funeral doom metal scene for 2006.

"The Sunken Threshold" consists only of three composition yet will accompany you for more than 40 minutes and will make you asphyxiate in its obscure and unearthly soundscapes. Just stare at the abstract cover and you'll get what i mean, thorns and tentacles blending together in dismay. Some references in their sound could be The Funeral Orchestra, but there's a small difference, there where The Funeral Orchestra had an apocalyptic and trance-like feeling Wreck Of The Hesperus sound sinister and twisted. You add some more traditional distortion at the guitar sound in the vein of Reverend Bizarre, some obscure noisy electronic sequences that are not being overused, just being there a few times to achieve a more distressing atmosphere (just like on "Grave Signal"), and doses of threatening and hallucinating emotions and what you get is Wreck Of The Hesperus.

The guitar riffing is ultra slow, with a more traditional distorion as i already mentioned, and flows along with the bass lines which pace at the tempo of the riffing, making it more powerful, lending depth to the compositions, whereas the drumming is slow as well and somehow imposing. Well, there are bands with more bombastic and soul-crushing drumming that creates unbearable walls of sound, but the volume of the drumming is high enough to accompany the funeral doom of Wreck Of The Hesperus. Actually, i really loved the moment of silence with whispers on the very background somewhere in the middle of "The Osseous Tomb (Echoes Of Winter)" that was followed by the ominous interpretation of the rhythm section, totally deathlike and oppressice, minimalistic to the core, leading slowly and steadily to a ground-breaking emotional outburst filled with anger and hate! As for the vocal lines, they are deeply expressive, raw and unearthly screams that haunt the listener with their nocturnal and disonnant aura!

Something really remarkable is the fact that once a song reaches its end and the next starts echoing from the speakers the one song "dives" right into the other letting the album flow wonderfully without the 1-2 seconds interruptions! Three compositions, three esoteric horrors burning deep inside, three nightmares longing to get you down on your knees and make you one with the barren landscape that lies lifeless, three the tentacles of the amorphous sea tormenting your subconscious mind, three the thorns that harash your very soul.

If you get to find it somewhere around don't pass it by, let "The Sunken Threshold" unfold its ravenous tentacles around your wickening body and crown you with thorns...

"Mountains Block the sun
Forests stragling
Oceans crushing
The Sky is falling

Poison
Animal, human, vermin
All the fucking same
Indiscriminate slaughter

A grave won't keep you safe
A tomb won't be immune..."