Band:	Idol Of Fear
Album:	Trespasser
Style:	Melodic black metal, Death metal
Release date:	March 2022

01. The Flayed Horizon
02. Angel Dust
03. Cheirotonia
04. Phantom
05. Trespasser
06. In The Cold Light Of Dawn
07. Alone With You
08. What You Came To Find
09. Endless

"Dark metal" is one of the terms that gets thrown out a lot, and even if a lot of times it's used to describe radically different sounds, I don't think it would be controversial to call Idol Of Fear's Trespasser as dark metal.

It seems like I'm not the only one of this opinion, as we've been calling Idol Of Fear "dark metal" since 2014, in Susan's review of their debut. I don't think "dark metal" is ever gonna catch on or ever gonna define a very singular sound, so until then, we'll have to try and place Idol Of Fear somewhere. It's a bit black, a bit death, a bit doom, I'd even go as far to say that there's some goth and industrial, but each in just small enough a quantity or diluted in a blend of sounds that is hard to define. But other than Idol Of Fear's debut album, another game-changer released in 2014 was Emptiness' Nothing But The Whole. That's the only album with a vibe similar enough that I can relate to, with the only exception being the Emptiness albums released since.

So that the jump that Emptiness took from the blackened doom sound to that avant-garde goth slab of death, but instead apply it to Deathspell Omega dissonant black. There's some other albums that you might wanna throw in. Behemoth's The Satanist for the occult. Ulcerate's Stare Into Death And Be Still for the apocalyptic. Urfaust's Teufelsgeist for the intoxication. Godflesh's Streetcleaner for the pummeling. At this point you might also want to throw in some post-metal for good measure. And the thing is that Idol Of Fear isn't really taking any left-turns with their sound, once the throttle has been pressed, it lingers in intoxicating occult pummeling apocalyptic dance of dissonance.

This is less of a guitar focused album than most albums in its vein, with both the synths and the drumming feeling like they do more of the heavy lifting. But as far as the guitars are concerned, the dissonant black inside it is pretty obvious, but the angular riffing does give hints of goth rock at times, as well as stretching out the riffing like some plasticine and shaping it into mournful dirges instead. The synths keep themselves ominous and horrifying. The drums don't sound as mechanical as the industrial metal comparisons would imply, but they're the closest to that mechanical coldness that I've ever heard human played drums be. The vocals are ghoulish. The bass reinforces the punch of the drums and guitars pretty well. And the effects are nauseating and uncanny.

This is the kind of album that puts a lot of effort into creating a unique atmosphere, a very sinister one at that, and while similarities to Emptiness are abound, this still feels extremely unique. And despite its emphasis on atmosphere, the staying power lies within the fact that they've managed to craft really memorable songs to pursue this atmosphere. Choruses and melodies never feel cheesy, but they stick out, ensuring a pretty good balance between immediate and lasting impact.