Hallowed Butchery - Deathsongs from the Hymnal of the Church of the Final Pilgrimage

HALLOWED BUTCHERY - Deathsongs from the Hymnal of the Church of the Final Pilgrimage (AESTHETIC DEATH - CD 2021)

Aesthetic Death Productions delivered CD of another their mysterious project. This time it's a Maine, US based one-man entity called Hallowed Butchery and the album titled "Deathsongs from the Hymnal of the Church of the Final Pilgrimage". Well, we all know that this label specializes in the most challenging and boundaries breaking music. There's never anything obvious and typical for them. It's no different with Hallowed Butchery. What Ryan Scott Fairfield, leader of HB, delivers under this moniker is a very intriguing funeral doom metal, played in quite experimental and varied way. 

It feels like his music never walks known paths. There are obviously characteristic for the genre crushing, heavy as hell riffs, there's melancholic, sorrowful atmosphere, as well as many great deep growls. But the album is full of surprises and diversity, so it often goes deep into very different musical styles, from folk, industrial to ambient. Same goes for different vocal styles used here. As a result, "Deathsongs..." is quite a journey, untypical, unforeseeable and so eerie and disturbing. It's one of those albums, where you can’t pick a single song to be a fair representative for the CD. You need to listen to it entirely, because none of its parts are the same. Although, I do have my favourite songs, like that freaking awesome opening riff for “Ever Gloom” so smoothly silencing and turning into very quiet and rock-ish motif. It blends fantastically well, which is also why “Ever Gloom” is my favourite song from the album. “There is no sun, there is only death!”, brilliant. I am not going to describe each song separately though, there’s no point in doing so. But believe me, all these different styles are combined into something unique, mysterious and fascinating. Doom metal is more present in the first part of the album though, while the second part is more experimental. Take such “On the Altar”for instance, which is acoustic neofolk piece alike to such Death In June, which I have absolutely nothing against, as I do listen to such music sometimes also. And it sounds great. 

I'm not sure where I've read it, but there was a note that this music is not for people, who like their metal to sound straight forward. Hmm, in many parts of the album, music is not metal at all. But there's just something truly luring about it, anyway. I guess that its dark, very vicious and almost ritualistic aura is what wins here for me. But musical aspects are also intriguing and I have to say that I really like how Hallowed Butchery sounds here. Maybe it's due to the fact that I don't really listen to such music often what makes it all so interesting for me. But I also think that it's because there are so many emotions included in this music. The concept, which did Fairfield create for "Deathsongs...", also seems to be something interesting, although I do admit that I had no time yet to read the lyrics from both booklets (yes, there are two booklets included to this CD). Just check what The Church of the Final Pilgrimage was, on https://hallowedbutchery.com there's a whole text about it. All in all, we have here a very intriguing and worthy release. 

Standout tracks: “Ever Gloom”, “The Altruist”, “On the Altar” 

Verdict: 70/100