Band:	Piah Mater
Album:	Under The Shadow Of A Foreign Sun
Style:	Progressive death metal
Release date:	July 2024
A review by:	musclassia

01. As Islands Sink
02. Fallow Garden
03. Macaw's Lament
04. In Fringes
05. Terra Dois
06. Canícula

By this point in time, saying that a new progressive death metal band sounds like Opeth has arguably become such a habitual comparison that reviewers have to take conscious effort to avoid doing so reflexively. However, there are some bands out there that genuinely do sound an awful lot like Opeth, and Piah Mater rank highly among them.

It's not the first time that the Brazilian band have inspired parallels to be drawn between their material and that of the Swedish prog giants; 2018’s The Wandering Daughter was subject to similar discussion. The band have changed slightly since then; while the guitar core duo of Luiz Felipe Netto and Igor Meira remain intact, drummer Kalki Avatara departed between records, to be replaced by session drummer Pedro Mercier. On top of that, though, the band’s new and third album Under The Shadow Of A Foreign Sun features a plethora of guests, most notably Shining (NOR)’s Jørgen Munkeby, as well as several names that guested on last year’s debut by Helga, a band that both Felipe Netto and Mercier have previously contributed to. This legion of saxophonists, violinists, cellists, flautists and vocalists have come together to take Piah Mater’s music to the next level.

When saying that a band ‘sounds like Opeth’, there are degrees to the strength of the similarity. Bands such as Anciients and Ne Obliviscaris have been subject to such discussion, and there are common elements between the three bands, but also very clear differences. However, it’s also possible to produce sounds that approach carbon copy status, and I can think of very few songs not released by Opeth that sound as much like Opeth as “As Islands Sink” (maybe “Called Home” by Allegaeon?). The initial Ghost Reveries-style vocal invocations in the opening minute and the brooding Blackwater Park-esque passage when the distortion first kicks in with the lead guitar motif on top are already disarmingly similar, but the verse riff that kicks in at 2:32 was surely stolen from a discarded Mikael Åkerfeldt scrapbook circa 2000.

Still, there’s two things to be said about this. First, Opeth no longer sound like they did 20 years ago, and there’s definitely great songs in that sound that the band didn’t write before going in the direction they’re currently exploring, so if a new group is able to use those musical foundations to create genuinely captivating music, I’m not going to turn my nose away from it. As it is, “As Islands Sink” is a song that I feel would have stood up reasonably well against the composition if it found itself on the tracklist of Still Life or Deliverance. As much as the song’s first half is a bit too ‘on the nose’ at times, the track’s evolution in its second, softer, more expansive second half is very compelling; Felipe Netto does a great impression of Åkerfeldt at his most evocative, and as the guitar tremolos and rhythm section build texture and tension beneath his singing, I find myself utterly charmed by Piah Mater’s work here.

The second thing to say is that while “As Islands Sink” is blatant in its inspiration, not all of Under The Shadow Of A Foreign Sun is so indebted to the same degree. Sure, moments such as the beginning of “In Fringes” and the latter stages of “Canicula” respectively take one’s mind instantly to Blackwater Park and In Cauda Venenum. But then you have a song like “Fallow Garden” (on which Munkeby’s saxophone appears), which, while remaining firmly within the realm of progressive death metal, does venture into some other directions; there’s a clear blackened edge to the song’s verses that imbues a real intensity, and the coalescence of that blackened riffing and the soaring clean singing in the post-chorus passage is positively euphoric. The expanded scope of “Fallow Garden” firmly pays off; going from black metal extremity to doomy gloom and then onwards into proggy exuberance with the frenetic saxophone successfully demonstrates additional dimensions to Piah Mater’s writing.

There’s also a nice shake-up of approach during “In Fringes”. After the keyboard-centric soft prog passage, there’s a complete shift in focus towards a gloomy, almost gothic doom sound; the trudging distortion, sorrowful guitar melodies and tortured growls sound rather more like Draconian (particularly when the female vocal cameo comes in) than their Swedish prog kin, while the folk-tinged acoustics give me the faintest hint of Amorphis. Across Under The Shadow Of A Foreign Sun, Piah Mater demonstrate that their strength in capturing the essence of Opeth is arguably more in the emotion and atmosphere rather than the complex side, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that they are successful at putting their hand to a doomier, more sorrowful approach.

It's not a flawless album; those keyboard-driven soft prog moments in “In Fringes” do feel a bit disconnected from the surrounding metal parts, “Macaw’s Lament” is a slightly undercooked acoustic interlude, and “Canicula” arguably extends its acoustic prog portion for too long without really developing it in a way that properly justifies the length. However, Under The Shadow Of A Foreign Sun is quite remarkable in how, despite being unavoidably beholden to comparisons to more established bands, it delivers sufficiently strong content as to be vital in its own right, particularly with moments such as the emphatically memorable guitar motif that bookends “Terra Dois”. Anyone who misses classic-era Opeth and is open to hearing an up-and-coming band take their own stab at the sound would be a fool to overlook this album.