Album Review : Pillar of Light - Caldera (2024)
There was a before and an after Bell Witch for doom metal acts. The arms race to the longest and most excruciating songs is over, the Seattle-based duo won. Writing longer and slower songs than they did would just be inconsiderate of anyone's time. So, it’s more important than ever for doom metal bands to understand who they are and what exactly they have to offer outside of cranking the knob of intensity to eleven. I had no fucking clue who Pillar of Light were until last week, but they sure know themselves.
Pillar of Light's first full length record Caldera came out on December 6 and it punched the metal community in the balls.
Caldera has seven songs and 55 minutes to offer, which is pretty standard in terms of quality doom metal output. The best way I can explain their sounds is that it’s more or less funeral doom metal played on fast forward. It’s quite bare, often melodic and despite being musically tight as fuck, a lot of Pillar of Light's appeal comes from their vocalist Aaron Whitfield’s visceral and passionate performances. My dude has just one trick up his sleeve but, in good funeral doom fashion, it never feels boring nor repetitive.
SPARED is one of the most cinematic songs on the record. It features some of the catchiest riffs and solid chemistry between their two guitarists Alex Kennedy and Scott Christie who blend power chords and clean, melodic riffing to create a sense of emergency. I also love the way it builds up over the second half towards a tragic ending to Whitfield shrieking "THERE IS NO OTHER WAAAAAY". It's such a dramatic and multifaceted song. The guys are never afraid to be intense and emotional. It's hard not to feel compelled.
One of the specificities that make Pillar of Light more interesting than you run-of-the-mill doom unit is that they song structures are rather conventional, but they’re unafraid to stretch them out and explores what time, repetition, patience and precision have to offer them, from a sonic standpoint. A song like INFERNAL GAZE, for example, sounds like a man's long and painful walk towards one's own grave and it builds up so much intensity out of such simple riffs, it lights up like a freakin' house fire.
The two openers WOLF TO MAN and LEAVING are even more minimalistic, letting their riffs breathe and linger for lengths of eight and six minutes respectively to counterbalance the raw desperation in Aaron Whitfield's voice. It's so simple and yet, the five members of Pillar of Light are so attuned to what they're doing and play with such conviction that the effect is devastating. There are complexities (like elements of post-rock in WOLF TO MAN), but it's so subtle and graceful. It never feels overloaded or shoehorned in.
UNSEEING is one of the heaviest and most desolate songs on Caldera. It inevitably lumbers forward with a ragged, but rock solid sense of fatality. I love how at some moments it become very quiet, leaving only a few clean notes lingering in space, providing hope and relief before charging on again. It's dramatic as hell. It's such smart songwriting and it has such a clear idea of what it wants to achieve. That’s what’s so powerful about this band. When you know who you are, you can go hard at it.
I should take a second to try and explain what makes Aaron Whitfield's voice so important to Pillar of Light’s sound: It's clean, but extremely hoarse and emotional. Listening to him hurl his despair into a microphone feels the way you felt at the worst moment of your life when you just wanted to scream and cry and give up, but somehow it’s not a bummer. Somehow it feels good to hear this sound coming from another human being's lung. It makes you feel understood and less alone.
The closer and longest song on Caldera is CERTAIN END and like the title indicates, you know exactly where this is going. I loved the reverb-drenched shoegazy guitar that play slowly and solemnly as Aaron Whitfield vomits out all the fucking pain he's able to muster, bolstering the feeling of finality. It’s gloriously intense and heartbroken. CERTAIN END is low key nimble and graceful, but it’s not subtle at all. You can choose to actively listen to its intricacies, but it’s best enjoyed when coursing through your heart and soul.
*
In all transparency, I was blown away by my first listen of Caldera. It's a crystal clear record that offers such sincere and powerful catharsis for the listener, it's quite difficult not to feel moved by either Whitfield's debilitating intensity or the dramatic and dynamic character of the songwriting that isn't afraid to repurpose elements that would be considered corny in other contexts (like snare rolls) and put them to good use in their compositions. I did not expect to like a debut record from an unknown band so much.
8.3/10
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