Hailing from Paris, Dirge have spent the last twenty-four years carving out ethereal soundscapes that draw on a variety of genres from doom and sludge to industrial and post-metal. Nominally they slot right in alongside acts such as Neurosis and Cult of Luna but, compellingly, their sound is uniquely their own. The last time we caught up with the band, it was the phenomenal Elysian Magnetic Fields. There has only one album since then, 2014’s Hyperion but, if the band work on their own time, it is only to their advantage as it allows considerable growth and development between each work. Featuring just seven tracks, albeit stretched over an hour thanks to their extended run times, Lost Empyrean sees the band once again take the listener to a realm that sits somewhere beyond the stars, where the only light is a dim luminescence as much imagined as seen.
A mysterious and dense gateway, opening track Wingless multitudes serves to transport the listener to the otherworldly realm that Dirge call their home. As riffs detonate and implode, huge, airy leads swirl and coalesce in the vapour-trail, creating a gorgeous, melodic barrage of sound that swallows the listener whole. This is not music for a casual moment’s headbanging. No; this is music to absorb and to contemplate. It operates in its own unique environment, and although the track is listed as lasting some six-and-a-half minutes, it doesn’t feel that long. Segueing directly into the sludgy Hosea 8 7, the band introduce a taut, rhythmic underpinning to their dark riffing, the result being a tense piece of music that ebbs and flows beautifully. Vocals range from a toughened roar to a near-monastic chant, the results verging on the hypnotic. It’s hard to express in words how beautifully ethereal the music actually is, despite the dense weight of it all, and few bands have the skills to so deftly mix such disparate elements without the end result feeling like a compromise. Everything changes as the creeping, ambient horror of Algid Troy emerges from the haze. A track with a lengthy build-up that ramps up the tension to screaming point, it slowly devolves into mid-tempo post-rock, rich in atmosphere, before the band allow everything to expand until the piece becomes an out-of-control monster that blots out the world and leaves the listener dazed and reeling. Creeping noise announces the blisteringly heavy The burden of almost, arguably the track that cleaves closest to the dense, nightmarish weight of Neurosis in full flow, yet it still sees the band find time to spin the music off in unexpected directions, and, once again, there’s that sense of beauty amidst the ever-present threat – like looking at some delicate, yet deadly exotic flower.
Opening with the sound of footsteps in the sand and echoing guitar, the haunting Lost Empyrean evokes half-seen images of some far flung shore, alien and shimmering in the heat of a dying sun. However, the listener should not get too comfortable because, at the track’s twisted heart, lies a formidable passage full of seething riffs and harsh vocals. A primal display of untrammelled might, the song captures Dirge at both their most beguiling and their most brutal. In contrast, a sea of light wastes no time in unleashing a torrid wave of heavily distorted guitar in an attempt to deluge the listener before suddenly departing in the direction of latter-day Ulver, all soothing vocals and arcing lead lines. The album’s final track, Sarracenia, is another lengthy piece of work at nine-minutes in length. Combining astringent drones, doom-laden tempos and arcing feedback, the track brings the record to a shattering conclusion. Opening in widescreen fashion, it is the horror-infused bass line (distorted and crackling with malevolent intent) that hooks the listener and sends them hurtling into the melodic core of the song. It’s both gorgeous and hypnotic, the layered, clean vocals weaving gossamer strands around the listener to protect them from the buffeting of the stormy riffs ahead.
Overwhelmingly ambitious in scope, the easy path is to compare Dirge to acts such as Neurosis and Cult of Luna when, in fact, they are peerless. Certainly there are elements of post-metal shot through the band’s DNA, but there are also elements of doom, sludge, progressive and alternative, all of which coalesce beautifully. A perfect example of a band for whom the art of making music is everything, don’t expect to find any short, easy tracks here. This is an album meant to be absorbed as a whole, but for those willing to invest the time, there are rich rewards indeed to be had. A compelling, inventive and stunning piece of work, Lost Empyreon is easily one of my albums of the year, if not the album of the year and there is no doubt that the music contained within will stand the test of time. Flawless. 10
