Review: Zatokrev ‘…Bring Mirrors To The Surface’
Some bands gather together collections of songs to form a long player, and some create an album that forms a journey, with the individual tracks a constituent of the overall make up. Basel based four-piece Zatokrev came together nearly a quarter of a century ago with the intent of creating intense, weighty music that would shake the foundations of their local scene with the seismic heft of their monolithic, searing post-metal.
Having bounced around several independent labels, including Earache, Czar of Crickets, and Firebox Records, the band released The Bat, The Wheel, And A Long Road To Nowhere through Candlelight in 2012. Their third full-length saw them expand their soundscape even further as they sought to refine and push the boundaries of their craft, colliding psychedelia, black metal, and hard-hitting riffs with a spiritual depth and mournful ambiance.
Despite a decade passing since their last outing, 2015’s Silk Spiders Underwater, Zatokrev have not had their feet up, cementing a fierce live reputation across European stages and now the latest album …Bring Mirrors To The Surface (allegedly completed in 2022), released through Berlin’s Pelagic Records, seeks to make up for lack of time, being a long running affair that spans over an hour.
When you think of the best of post-metal, it is seldom done through individual songs. Naturally, you can point to high watermarks like Cult Of Luna’s Lights On A Hill, or The Ocean’s Permian: The Great Dying, but more often than not, they form part of a long-form narrative that ebbs and flows through the album length. …Bring Mirrors To The Surface is no different in its immersive exploration of self-reflection that has echoes of those who have walked a subversive path before them, like ISIS, the reformed Acid Bath and other avant-garde luminaries such as Minsk, with whom they would release a split EP in 2018.
Building from feedback, Red Storm opens the album slowly and grows the grinding moment into a plodding but crushing heavyweight doom atmosphere with an imperiously dramatic chug that recalls the likes of Ufomammut. The swooping and diving bends that colour the screeching false stops of the backing layers make this a dense, rich tapestry from the off. As howls and guttural intonations charge, the track with mournful beckoning, sinister whispers and screeches flit in and out of the grinding, macabre atmosphere.
This sludgy, downbeat opening sets the tone for …Bring Mirrors To The Surface, as the band explores cycles of melodic tenderness and fleeting relief. These moments are juxtaposed against crushing, deliberate repetition and creeping studies in granular progression, building not just within individual songs, but across the album’s entire length.
With the exception of two notably shorter entries, Faintand Pearl Eyes, most of the tracks drift closer to the ten-minute mark and keep to a mid-paced tempo, which can, at times, make the overall outlook feel like a series of meandering moments.
crushing heavyweight doom atmosphere with an imperiously dramatic chug…
Where Zatokrev come into their own and prevent the listener from tuning out, is the variation that unfolds in isolated moments. Blood (featuring guest vocals from Inezona) eschews the elephantine heaviness for moments of vulnerable, clean harmonies and soaring vocals. The Only Voice careens into a blur of black metal tremolo abuse and frenetic drum shuffles, yanking you out of the moment with its contrasting dynamics before dissolving into a satisfying groove and dancing guitar work at the back end of the track.
Unwinding Spirits is a fully immersive listening experience. Almost beyond a song, it is a cinematic audio experience that, if you close your eyes and drift away, you can feel the textures and see the colours in your mind’s eye. It is in these moments that the album excels and makes use of contrasts that keep the oppressive, gloomy voyage from becoming too overbearing. With reverb heavy chanting and dense beauty reflected against the stabs of distorted violence, Zatokrev draw you into the vortex like a swirl and hold you in the eye of the storm.
The lumbering Faint is the shortest track and as such wastes little time grabbing you by the scruff of the neck. Almost hardcore in nature with intense drumming from Frédéric Hug, it writhes and clashes like prime Neurosis in the savagery of the churn, which complements Pearl Eyes more rhythmic and contrasting tussles.
The thunderous Changes pushes the stamina of the listener as it runs the gamut from wrought brutality to sombre reflection. It succeeds through the balance of light and shade that contribute to the cathartic build and release, while the returning vocals at the end are sparsely used to great effect.
Deep Dark Turns Green is a brooding, epic-length conclusion to this journey. Part post-metal, part indie and part shoegaze, much of the visceral heaviness of the earlier moments melts away into a swelling chorus of voices. It arrives as an emotional payoff, where you can almost feel the album buckle under the weight of its own gravity.
At times …Bring Mirrors To The Surface excels beyond even the lofty expectations that the band have laid down for themselves. The album, which also includes vocal contributions from Schammasch, Manuel Gagneux (Zeal & Ardor), Minsk, and Bölzer, is a complete piece of artistry, down to the moody and eye-catching artwork.
There are moments when the band’s desire to create glacial landscapes of progression causes your attention to lose focus, where maybe they dwell too long on an idea or movement, but overall, this is a quality album full of twists and turns. It won’t brighten a sunny day, but if you want to sit with a powerful, brooding soundtrack, Zatokrev have more than got you covered.
Label: Pelagic Records
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram
Scribed by: Mark Hunt-Bryden
