Unfold – ‘Cosmogon’ Album Review

Existing in a realm occupied by the rarefied talents of bands such as Neurosis, Converge and Dirge and having only just returned from a distressingly lengthy hiatus (of seven years), Unfold have more than earned their epithet of ‘the kings of Swiss heaviness’, particularly on this monolithic slab of sludge metal – the six track exploration of the darkest recesses of the psyche that is ‘Cosmogon’. A varied, enthralling and intelligent discourse upon the darker side of human frailty, ‘Cosmogon’ is progressive in the sense that it pushes the boundaries in a way that few bands ever truly succeed at doing and the result is a thought provoking and often devastatingly heavy work of art that will find favour with fans of beautifully constructed and stunningly played extreme music. 

Opening track ‘Erebe’ sets out the band’s devastating stall in no uncertain terms – an onslaught of buzzing sludge riffs, corrosive screams and taut, angular drumming, announce the band’s return to action and yet buried beneath the initially forbidding surface are layers and layers of melody that slowly emerge before the listener like fractal patterns before retreating from the grasp as if they’d never been there in the first place. A band hasn’t sounded quite this enthralling since Isis unleashed the remarkable ‘oceanic’ and quite simply if you liked that immense slab of post-rock magnificence then this will have you doing cartwheels. A lifetime flies by in the opening three minutes of ‘Erebe’ with convulsive idea after idea being played out and ultimate discarded as the band constantly refine and redefine their essence before the very ears of their listeners. It’s edge of the seat stuff and quite impossibly engrossing. And that’s just the first track…

Having utterly ensnared you from the off, Unfold can do no wrong and ‘Hemere’ appears as a fleeting glimpse of the band’s snarling, enraged core – a white hot, white-knuckle blast of hardcore intensity that is brushed aside before its even really got started to be replaced by the tribal drums and hypnotic intensity of ‘hystrion’. Recalling nothing so much as Neurosis’ moment of wonder – ‘through silver in blood’, ‘hysterion’ is a five minute ride through menacing guitar, darkly rumbling bass and an intense percussive assault. God only knows how loud it must be live, but the effect here is galvanising, forcing you to sit up and pay attention no matter what you’re doing, as huge swathes of distortion wash over you and the song wends its way towards its inevitable conclusion. Having reached a peak, ‘Hysterion’ suddenly dissolves into the propulsive attack of ‘hexahedron’ which contrasts multi-faceted riffs with tortured vocals and the gentlest quiet passages to great effect. A short track its sole purpose is to funnel the listener ever onwards to the quite monumental, 13 minute ‘Ethera’.

‘Ethera’ is a track that is so compellingly magnificent that it justifies a paragraph to itself. Considering the damage that Unfold can wreak upon the unwary psyche with just five minutes at their disposal, this epic length track is no meagre proposition and the band don’t disappoint. It’s as if going on hiatus was simply a chance to regroup and recharge the creative batteries with the result channelled into this one almighty moment of glory, and a moment of glory it truly is. The guitars churn and howl while a real sense of creeping atmosphere is built up. Reference points for the uninitiated might be found in the work of Isis, Neurosis or the Ocean collective but ultimately Unfold deal only in their own unique realm of inspiration and as the track ebbs and flows across its almighty run time you’re given little pause to reflect on who or what it sounds like as the track evolves at a pace that makes Jurassic Park’s accelerated recreation of the dinosaurs look vaguely apathetic. As wonderful as the rest of the record is, I could happily sacrifice every track for this one shining moment of brilliance, and it is a testament to how remarkable the track is that it all but eclipses the previous four tracks despite their own quite astonishing strengths.

Final track, the seven minute ‘eschaton’ should be a letdown after the monolithic brilliance that preceded it, and yet such is Unfold’s sense of escalation that the final track provides a fitting coda to this most remarkable of records. Memorable, incisive and beautifully composed, you’ll hear something new every time you put the disc in the stereo, and it is no exaggeration to speak of Unfold in the same hallowed terms reserved for revered artists such as Tool, Pink Floyd and King Crimson.

‘Cosmogon’ is a dizzying album. It took six listens to write this review. Six, that is, just to be brave enough to put pen to paper, and a further three or so to finish it adequately. I’ve lived with this album, played it before sleep and whilst lying back and just drifting off into space and nothing dulls its impact. There could be no more fitting return to action for Unfold – they have crafted a quite unforgiving brilliant work of art that casts a long shadow over the worlds of post-rock, sludge rock and progressive music that it will take quite a band to work out from under. Bands such as Unfold are rare, beautiful things that must be nurtured and developed and this is a record that is quite unreservedly essential in the collections of any serious music fan. A remarkable, stunning achievement.