SYNTHEOSIS

"Syntheosis" is the debut full-length studio album by Finnish doom metal act Waste of Space Orchestra. The album was released through Svart Records in April 2019. Waste of Space Orchestra is a collaboration project between the members of Oranssi Pazuzu and Dark Buddha Rising and was originally formed with the goal of a one-off performance at the Roadburn Festival 2018. The performance was so successful though, that the band were offered the opportunity to record and release "Syntheosis"...

...and listening to "Syntheosis" it doesn't take long to understand why that is. Already from the opening notes of "Void Monolith" (well it opens with some mellow noises, but about 1 minutes into the song) it becomes apparent that Waste of Space Orchestra are a pretty special unit. Droning doomy paces (and occasionally more energetic tempos), heavy riffs and beats, organic and pretty busy drumming, psychadelic dark nightmarish atmospheres, and various types of vocals (black metal shrieks, death metal growling, sludge/hardcore shouting, and even some female clean vocals) are some of the features of the album. Keyboards and effects often help build epic moments of dark bliss, and this is a very adventurous but also stylistically consistent release with a great tracklist flow.

Personally I find the repetitive almost hypnotic krautrock influenced first minutes of the 10:36 minutes long "Journey to the Center of Mass" to drag a little, but it's more a matter of subjective taste than it's a matter of quality, and the closing epic climax to that song is very impressive. The remaining part of the album is a bit up and down as far as intriguing structures and effectful songwriting go. Both the ritualistic, repetitive, and slow building "Infinite Gate Opening" and the ambient "The Universal Eye" drag for far too long, and are both uneventful and a little hard to get through. The closing 13:02 minutes long title track is thankfully a bit more interesting and an effecful closing of the album.

The musicianship is strong on all posts and "Syntheosis" features a powerful, detailed, and organic sounding production job, which suits the material perfectly. "Syntheosis" is a dynamic release which is sometimes a wild and energetic ride but often a more slow building and atmospheric journey and the contrasts work well on the album (although some tracks are a bit too repetitive and drag for too long). The opening trio of tracks are absolutely amazing to my ears, but I don't think the band are able to deliver the same high quality throughout the album and therefore my rating is a bit lower than I thought it would be, when I started listening to the album. A 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)