Band:	Autolith
Album:	Artificial Heaven
Style:	Hardcore, Sludge metal
Release date:	May 2024

01. Calloused And Worn
02. It Claws
03. Mental Furnace
04. Blurring Lucidity
05. Entrenched In Guilt
06. Lathe Of Misery
07. Mourning Skin
08. Emptiness
09. Portrait Of Regret

When reviewing debuts of bands previously covered in Clandestine Cuts, I may have voiced my impatience once or twice (or thrice) for one particular Clandestine Cuts bands to make the same leap; finally, after 4 years, Autolith have released a full-length debut.

Caustic Light was the first EP I covered for Clandestine Cuts, but I wasn’t alone in rating it highly (as its 2020 Staff Pick serves as testament to); they had stumbled upon a really solid crusty sludge sound with occasional post-metal inclinations. It’s right up there with Melancholia’s Static Church and Meridian Sun’s The Curse as one of the best releases featured in the article series, and after both those bands released full debuts in late 2023, Autolith have followed suit. I’ve been curious about what to expect from an Autolith album, however; while Caustic Light is initially abrasive and vicious, its final song is more elongated and oriented towards post-metal, and so was “Glass Hive”, their contribution to the following year’s Knoll / Autolith split. Based on that trend, there was reason to ponder over what balance the group would seek between aggression and atmosphere across a full-album runtime.

The answer, it turns out, is more oriented towards the former, but there’s plenty more than just belligerence to Artificial Heaven. Opening song “Calloused And Worn” exemplifies this by covering almost the whole range of approaches utilized by Autolith; an opening assault of blast beats and frenzied vocals turns slower and grimier, punishing listeners with dingy, crawling sludge riffs up to around the halfway mark. At this point, however, some unexpected melody is faintly woven into the mix in the form of an oscillating clean guitar motif, one that takes over as the riffs fade and offers a glimpse of the band’s more contemplative side (even if it is a brief glimpse, as the song ultimately ends as grimly and punishingly as it began).

There are a couple of short tracks on Artificial Heaven, but while they both serve interlude-esque functions, it would be reductive to refer to them as such; “It Claws” is a bleak, percussive instrumental that is fully developed as its own experience, while “Emptiness” acts as a starker contrast, its synths and sparse guitars channelling Vertikal-era Cult Of Luna to imbue a more subtle gloom upon listeners in contrast to the aggression of its sandwiching songs.

Those synths are perhaps the most striking element featured on Artificial Heaven, but Autolith’s range within metallic sounds is still impressive. “Mental Furnace” is rampant and pulverizing in its frantic, blasting opening moments, but like “Calloused And Worn”, it subsequently slows down; when it does so, however, it explores lighter tones slightly more, infusing post-rock tremolos into a sequence that flickers between trudging sludge heaviness and sparser soundscapes. “Blurring Lucidity” also utilizes such tremolos, but in a manner that is arguably more melodic and accompanied by brooding post-metal in the vein of Cult Of Luna rather than misanthropic sludge bludgeoning.

“Blurring Lucidity” is perhaps the peak of Artificial Heaven when it comes to post-metal atmospherics, but “Entrenched In Guilt” offers a different approach by introducing a guitar lead/solo that is surprisingly melodic in the midst of a song that is dissonant and brutish. Another shock is the use of clean vocals in the murky, gloomy “Lathe Of Misery”, which for large portions is among the most subdued tracks on the album, but at the same time has some of the record's most sustained blasting in its closing stages.

Ultimately, Autolith have done a good job of retaining the bite and malice that made Caustic Light such a captivating listen, while also expanding their sound in a few different directions. I would say that the album, as consistently good as it is, perhaps is missing a couple of standout songs or segments to really grab one’s attention amidst the overarching bleakness of the album, but Artificial Heaven is still a solid next step for the band that consolidates their strengths.