Band:	Chalice Of Suffering
Album:	Lost Eternally
Style:	Funeral doom metal
Release date:	April 19, 2019
A review by:	nikarg

01. In The Mist Of Once Was
02. Emancipation Of Pain
03. Forever Winter
04. Lost Eternally
05. The Hurt
06. Miss Me, But Let Me Go
07. Whispers Of Madness

This is the third doom release by Transcending Obscurity Records I'm reviewing this year, after Eremit's Carrier Of Weight and Illimitable Dolor's Leaden Light, and I'm really having a hard time deciding which one is more transcending.

Lost Eternally is an atmospheric death/doom record emancipating feelings generated by life's miseries in a way that reflects any harrowed soul. In an older interview of vocalist/founder, John McGovern, I remember him saying that he suffers from anxiety and depression and that writing lyrics and music has saved him and helped him release his feelings of worthlessness and anger. Obvious influences include Evoken, Shape Of Despair, Desire, Loss, Swallow The Sun and My Dying Bride of course, and Chalice Of Suffering incorporate them to form their own individual sound that detaches the listeners from their immediate surroundings, blurs their sense of reality and substitutes it with hazy past memories.

Slow, doleful and personal, Lost Eternally plunges headlong into the beauty of darkness and the desperation of solitude. "In The Mist Of Once Was" is a grand opener with eerie keyboards and folksy bagpipes meandering through the trudging rhythm of grievous riffs and loud, heartbeat-sounding basslines, while lonesome growls and mourning spoken words complete a musical landscape of total pessimism. "Forever Winter" has lead-weighted riffs that tear your soul apart, with lamenting keyboards carefully placed in the middle to induce a temporary state of reverie. The melancholic lead guitar melody in "The Hurt" progressively amasses all the pain in the world to be later let out by exhaling keyboards. The strongest point of this record is not an attempt to push the envelope of heaviness but rather its genuine emotional impact, which is way more essential in this style.

Chalice Of Suffering do not like things short; their debut was almost 75 minutes-long and Lost Eternally also stretches past the one-hour mark but some variety in tempo and direction (and the appearance of many guest vocalists), the inspired songwriting and, above all, the hauntingly engaging atmosphere all play their part so that this hour goes by in what seems like an instant.

Lost Eternally is a shiny jewel decorating the chalice of atmospheric death/doom that holds the interest until its final note, and all hope for that matter, has faded. Get drawn into the band's authentic and personal web of shadows, explore uncharted regions of stinging loneliness and pray to never be released from their thick shroud of excruciating melancholy.

"No matter where I go
There is no escape
I try to find my skin
I try to dream
I am a prisoner
All alone? in my head"