Pardis Latifa (bass/vocals); Moritz Ermen Bausch (drums) and Caspar Orfgen (guitar) are not names you will immediately recognise UNLESS, that is, you happened to chance upon "Delirious Rites"(2023) by a German band going by the name Daevar."Delirious Rites" was an album that blended the dense atmospherics of bands like Katatonia and Anathema with the low slow stoner doom dynamics of bands like Windhand and Sleep and benefited from generous sprinklings of occult rock ethereality and alt-metal colouring , elements that saw the album achieve a very respectable #16 placing on the January 2023 edition of The Doom Charts. This year the band return with a new album, "Amber Eyes" (The Lasting Dose Records), a release we feel will achieve much the same levels of love and appreciation that were afforded its predecessor.
"Lilith's Lullaby" opens Daevar's new album, the songs eerie and atmospheric first few minutes features a haunting vocal from bassist Latifa that moves up to an ethereal croon when her bass is joined by Bausch's drums and Orfgen's guitar in a fairly lo-fi but nevertheless substantial doomic groove flecked with some very impressive lead work. Low thrumming bass introduces next track ""Pay To Pray" and is then joined by the drums and guitar in more traditional low slow doom groove over which Latifa layers a strong emotive vocal, her dulcet tones a perfect match for the restrained heaviness of the music framing those tones. There is a cinematic air to next song "Caliban And The Witch" that is reminiscent in some ways of those soundtracks gracing shows like "Vikings" and "The Last Kingdom", well that is until around the halfway mark when things take on a more dark and sinister dynamic both vocally and musically. Title track "Amber Eyes" bursts out of the speakers next and is a much harder affair than much of what has passed previously, Orfgan and Latif's guitar and bass possess a much crunchier tone while Bausch's drumming takes on a much more thunderous quality, Latif's vocals here a mix of fey wispiness and sneery menace. "Lizards" brings a touch of those Katatonia/Anathema like atmospherics into play and twins them with subtle alt-metal textures while all the time keeping things rooted firmly in doomic soil. Final song "Grey In Grey" has the musical feel of something you might hear emanating out of the Polish heavy underground but boasts a vocal sittings at the more occult end of the doom spectrum, a stunning blend of light and shade that just seems to get better and better with each and every listen.
Daevar have with "Amber Eyes" made the album we all hoped they would make , an album that doesn't stray too far away from the blueprint the band drew up with the excellent "Delirious Rites" but is at the same time a progression in both its ideas, its arrangements and its musicality.
Check it out ....
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