Album Review: Evoken - Mendacium
Reviewed by Sam Jones
Funeral doom is something I particularly enjoy yet I recognise I don’t cover many albums of this style. The band today is Evoken with their seventh full length album, having formed in 1992 originally as Funereus, then Asmodeus, then finally resting on Evoken from 1994 onwards. Hailing from New Jersey, United States, the 90s were peppered with various Demos though 1998 saw their first full length: Embrace The Emptiness. Thirty years nearly from that release the band have steadily brought one record following another and, looking at their discography, how consistent it’s been, it staggers me how I’ve never encountered them before. But primed for October 17th, Mendacium shall be the band’s first major album release in seven years, their longest gap between records to date. Their third album with Profound Lore Records, Mendacium shall be my first exposure to Evoken and, given my deep affection for Funeral Doom, I was more than excited to get started.
When one experiences funeral doom one goes in knowing how these records typically go: massive guitar tone, guttural vocals, the usual. Those expectations are met and then some as Evoken raise riffs that trudge the murkiest planes and drums whose extra dose of bass helps to underlay their sound with additional bite, but what took me aback was the inclusion of synthesisers. Though it may not be utilised as a domineering factor throughout the songwriting the incorporation of synthesisers in their record blows the doors open as per what audiences should expect from Evoken. Its not as if they’re brought to the forefront either, they feel like an afterthought, something extra thrown in to aid atmospheric immersion, yet they creep upon your body like something you hadn’t realised had always clung on. The effect they impart is subtle, they aren’t brought into play for cavalier spotlight moments but they’re typically twinned with the guitar work and the tempo otherwise set by the band. Its a great addition to the band for it colours Evoken with hues we would never have anticipated and, knowing they do this in the opening track, all things become plausible possibilities.
Considering Mendacium is over an hour long one could look at this record and be unsurprised given funeral doom’s adoration for lengthier tracks. But you can risk losing an audience after so long, which is why breaking up the flow, every few tracks, with shorter and more straightforward pieces, serves to alleviate our experience and thus render us capable of digesting the next section of the record. I will say that whilst these shorter pieces are simpler than most of the full tracks, the atmosphere Evoken establish stands unbroken. This means audience engagement and, by extension, their investiture into Mendacium won’t undergo any form of reset between ending one full track and starting a shorter reprieve. As a result, for that hour long period you are thoroughly locked in to Mendacium, a willing prisoner to whatever demented chimes Evoken throw forth.
I found myself rather appreciating the atmospheric vibe Evoken play with. Funeral doom can be many things: morose, hopeless, alleviating etc, but Mendacium pushes something that’s tricky and tough to define in extreme metal: inner turmoil. Throughout the record i always had the sense that should one find themselves in this soundscape they’d be lost as to where they should turn, what they should feel in the moment, very little emotionally feels resolute and refined. There's something in the songwriting, the way riffs churn and stomp with methodical cadence, with that synthesiser playing behind them, that removes us from the realm of actuality and into some more intangible space where we can’t be sure of what’s ahead. It purposefully drops you into a state of simultaneous knowing and unknowing where each feels realised, yet deliberately left vague so a listener would feel as if they’re floating, their feet just scraping the earth as their body, against their will, levitates, back arched, the whites in their eyes brought forth. There's a near spiritual aspect to it as the band’s aim was evidently not to pummel us into nonexistence but to immerse us within this transcendentally perplexing performance. Evoken’s impact feels particularly profound because their goal hasn’t been to physically hit us, rather to awaken within buried parapsychological truths lying dormant within us all.
Its curious that Evoken, through their performance, demonstrate they’re happy not moving too far out of the box they otherwise place themselves in to begin with. Much of the guitar work consists of haunting chords in triplets, maybe more, but the mood Evoken perform with rarely alters nor takes you into unbeknownst unfamiliar territory. There are just a handful of occasions where the guitar and drum tracks come into a heavier life and really bring the hammer down, yet the band prove this the exception as they’re obviously comfortable and competent in writing funeral doom where its happy manoeuvring the specific space the record establishes. Therefore when the heavier elements come into play it feels dramatic, as if Evoken are actively throwing their weight into the ring to give you the crushing impact audiences have been bracing for. It provides these sections with grander focus as we recognise the step-up Evoken have taken where they juxtapose these scathing sequences against their predominantly monastic, byzantine-infused funeral doom.
In conclusion, Evoken’s Mendacium is a difficult record to set down with an exclusively objective statement since i feel everyone who experiences this will come away with a unique response. Against the slew of funeral doom though i think Mendacium is akin to striking gold in the search for oil, since this record really does attempt funeral doom in a more abstract, sideways approach. The actual hit you receive won’t be from the frontal assault but the flanking procedures Evoken constantly hail your way. Like looking before a cathedral’s stained glass epics one can only surmise the true, undiluted reality behind what Evoken are saying with this record, but it is up to personal interpretation as per what that reality is. Its the unspoken element of what this record is that will keep bringing people back because, as comfortable and concise the band’s space clearly occupies, these nine and ten minute tracks play as if their timespans were more than halved. Its testament that a funeral doom band, when writing, don’t need to commit astonishing gravitas and mass to everything they do; Evoken’s presence could pass under the radar against other funeral doom acts yet I foresee many enticed to return. You have to respect the band for maintaining a purposefully unexplained record, keeping everything as vague as they dare go for as long as Mendacium lasts. This is a special record and one of the few truly unique experiences one will have in studio albums this year.
