Widow’s Peak – Claustrophobe
Widow’s Peak – Claustrophobe
Self-Released
Release Date: 07/07/23
Running Time: 42:30
Review by Dark Juan
9/10
Greetings from Yorkshire. I am Dark Juan and I write about music. Some of the time. More often than not there are three hundred words of ranting about something totally inconsequential before I actually turn my attention to what I am listening to. I have divested myself of my Fourth Invocation Robes (Spring Weight) in favour of a ratty pair of cargo shorts and frankly nothing else, considering the ridiculous temperature going on right now. I have two fans blasting each side of my head and they are making no difference besides making the warm air move a bit. I have even, and brace yourselves for a bit of a shock, turned a little bit brown instead of the corpse white I usually favour. When you wrangle recalcitrant young gentlemen and ladies for a living there is a large outdoor component. Normally when you are chasing the little fuckers up the road when they have done a runner.
Anyway, it’s too bloody hot and I am out of beer.
Bah.
I shall cheer myself up with some music. Let us see what is already upon the pre-loaded Platter of Splatter™. Ah, here we go. Today’s offering to the frankly Godlike critical prowess of Dark Juan is from Canada, and it is Calgary’s Widow’s Peak to which I am subjecting what remains of my hearing to today.
They bill themselves as… no, I am not repeating what the blurb says because it is too silly. What was that? You actually wish to know? Hang on then…
“Widow’s Peak stepped out from the dead space between the shadows with a bottle of their own distinctive tech death poison. Marrying a distinctly alien brutality to a mind warping inventiveness, a distorted glamour with an incisive, mechanistic desire for dissection they have grown into an armoured carapace of creativity that sets them worlds apart from the more simply human proponents of the savage arts…”
I’m being a bit mean, because Widow’s Peak play Technical Death Metal and Dark Juan fucking loves Technical Death Metal, especially because Necrophagist and Protosequence are two of Dark Juan’s favourite bands. Let’s see whether the debut album of Widow’s Peak, entitled “Claustrophobe”, meets with the approval of Dark Juan, or whether I will reject it as something as awful sounding as poutine.
Discordant clean guitars and bongo (!) drums start the record off on ‘Blood On The Breath’, being an intro of about a minute, before there is a pregnant pause and then the slaughter starts. Rather than building up to some violence, these normally exquisitely polite Canadians launch themselves teeth first at your throat, lock on and just keep on tearing on the first song proper, ‘Claustrophobe’. Fractured rhythms and blistering guitar work are the order of the day and Widow’s Peak immediately reminds this reviewer of the likes of Gorguts and Carcass before they discovered what a proper production job was with a smidgeon of Tool and King Crimson. But with added brain-mashing complexity. Seriously, this first song has about forty-seven central riffs. Widow’s Peak must have brains the size of planets and prehensile fingers.
The egregious sonic murder continues on ‘Implements Of Hell’, which again has enough quality riffage for an entire album contained within the three and a half minutes of absolute musical insanity that this song entails. The fingers of the players of the string instruments must all be flayed to the bone by now and the throat of Travis Godin lined with acid resistant steel, considering he is just as adept at grim, low pitched roaring as he is at skin-tearing high-pitched screaming. ‘The Worming Hour’ amply displays his vocal range and the depth of talent of all three guitar players – the fractured, almost calliope-like solos on this song add a frankly terrifying splash of splattered claret to the unrelentless black of the sound of Widow’s Peak. And the sheer complexity of the compositions… Wow. They are easily as impossible as Protosequence’s music and Dark Juan holds that band as the benchmark for just how complicated music can be.
However, the likes of Protosequence and Necrophagist favour a very clean, icy, highly produced sound, and this is something Widow’s Peak have eschewed, instead favouring a murkier, dirtier musical aesthetic more in line with the filthiest, most depraved Death Metal. And this leads me to one of the few demerits of this pretty fucking capable debut album. The production and choice of mix can sometimes be too murky. Intricacy that I know is there and needs to be heard is sometimes lost within a tsunami of vomit-ridden noise – I am unsure whether this is a choice of the band and their sound or whether it is a question of what they could afford when recording.
Otherwise, this is an astonishingly accomplished debut. The music doesn’t need any fine-tuning and the players are all clearly expert at their game and a bunch of mutants blessed with more digits and limbs than a normal person, the bass playing of Alyxx Frayne being particularly worthy of Dark Juan’s attention. This person is a FINE player indeed and the sound of the bass just earth-shatteringly thunderous throughout the record.
Basically, this album is like being eviscerated by aliens in aural form. The riffs are sharp-edged and knifelike, the bass like a warhammer crashing endlessly upon your skull, the vocals the demonic screaming of the demented, multi-limbed horror in front of you and the drumming the sound of your heart racing in terror… ‘Thrombosis’ allows you a bit of respite from blinding speed and full frontal (nudity) attack with a most intriguing song that eschews velocity for atmosphere and slowly building terror, with sparse instrumentation and lots of effects. It is dreamy (nightmarish, mind you) and Droney and fucking brilliant.
Although…
FUCKING BONGO DRUMS, PEOPLE? On a Tech Death record? Bloody Canadians being all inventive and shit… I am saying nothing more. Buy the record and find out what is going on for yourself. You aren’t going to be disappointed. If you like Technical Death Metal with strong Prog tendencies and a fearlessness to experiment with texture, composition and sound, Dark Juan thoroughly recommends Widow’s Peak to you. This is a band to mark for the future and no mistake.
The Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System (Le système breveté d’évaluation des éclaboussures de sang Dark Juan pour nos amis et fans canadiens francophones bien-aimés) awards Widow’s Peak 9/10 for a debut that is oozing with class, inventiveness, and charm. For once the blurb was accurate!
TRACKLISTING:
01. Blood On The Breath
02. Claustrophobe
03. Implements Of Hell
04. The Worming Hour
05. Monochrome
06. Pillars Of Failure
07. Charlatans Of Industry…
08. Thrombosis
09. Heartworms I: Aorta
10. Heartworms II: Vena Cava
11. When The Last Leaf Wilts
LINE-UP:
Travis Godin – Vocals
Alyxx Frayne – Bass
Chris McCrimmon – Lead Guitar
Mack Shaw – Rhythm Guitar
Patricio C. Paulsen – Drums
LINKS:
Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Dark Juan and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.
