Qaalm are a band from Los Angeles, California that has had music reviewed before in this zine and on this recording goes for an atmospheric, melodic and progressive mixture of post black, sludge and funeral doom metal and this is a review of their 2024 album "Grave Impressions Of An Unbroken Arc" which was released by Hyperthral Records.
Atmospheric sounding synths start off the album before going into more of a heavier funeral doom metal which also captures the heaviness of sludge metal. Melodies are also added into some of the guitar riffing while all of the tracks are also very long and epic in length and the vocals are mostly blackened metal screams.
Some of the deeper vocals also add in a touch of death metal while clear singing can also be heard at times. When clean playing is utilized they also take the album into more of a progressive direction along with the solos and leads also bringing in more of a melodic rock style , when the music finally speeds up a decent amount of blast beats and tremolo picking can also be heard and spoken words are also added on the closing track.
On this recording Qaalm takes a very atmospheric and melodic form of post black metal and mixes it with sludge, funeral doom metal and progressive rock to create a very diverse album. The production sounds very professional while the lyrics cover introspection themes.
In my opinion this is another great sounding recording from Qaalm and if you are a fan of atmospheric, melodic and progressive post black, sludge and funeral doom, you should check out this album. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "Shadows Behind The Sun" and "Hangman's Lament". 8 out of 10.
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