XASTHUR
XASTHUR “Inevitably Dark”
By: Lord Randall
So, one of the strangest touring packages I’ve seen in a good while was WINO & XASTHUR a few years back. Granted, gone were all elements of black metal from what Scott Connor and his guitar compadre, Joe Baker were doing there, at that dive bar in Nashville, TN, so maybe it wasn’t that outlandish after all. All he needed was a cowboy hat, right? Well, over XASTHUR’s set, I was reminded of what a good guitarist he actually is. And now, a few years after, Connor returns with the sprawling “Inevitably Dark”, recorded solo and on a Tascam DP-03.
“Affect/Infect” flirts with the black metal XASTHUR decreed over ten years ago, but it’s the man’s prerogative, and begins the first disc with a carnival ride aspect, yet controlled by a demon, so, you know, as the old barkers used to say “You pays your money, and you takes your chances.”. “A Future To Fear” bathes in dungeon synth and drum machines for the first couple minutes or so, then miasmic vocal chorus winds, haunting yet harkening in the enervating quality of it all, a call to disease…or from it?
Pastoral almost, and conjuring the image of the title perfectly, “Euphoric Bad Trip” is SANDROSE or a first-time-high SYD BARRETT coming down, but not too hastily, head in the smoke, wandering lost through the fields of delirium. Conversely, “Another Gutter” sounds disjointed, like Japanese body horror in musical form, scattered and skirmishing with itself which, parts that shouldn’t be combining with parts that welcome the dysmorphia, a perfect example of XASTHUR of 2023.
Frigid, phantasmic and somewhat recalling GOBLIN or TANGERINE DREAM’s darker moments, “Blizzard Inside A Coma” chills, while “Hellrot” melds churlish death metal guitar to grunt and gravel, bits of industrial being toyed with in the rhythms.
At 23 songs, there’s going to be a lot some longtime fans wince at, and such a deep and acute journey into mental illness isn’t for everyone. Still, there are gems found in sewers as well as sanctuaries, and this is where “Inevitably Dark” succeeds.