HARDWARES

So this is how it ends? While the band will continue to perform live, plans call for this to be their final studio recording (although I have a feeling there will be live discs, authorized or otherwise). Honestly, nothing could encapsulate the importance of their career accurately, nor capture the heights and depths of the sound, so any such culminating/finale was destined to fail from the outset. It’s not a bad album, simply not quintessential C-Mass, especially with the copious use of synthesizer (see title cut). ‘Prophet’ is an appropriate mix of funeral and guitar driven pomp for an opener. Would be at home on any of the post-Messiah Marcolin discs. In a nod to their own mortality (musical or otherwise), the last thing heard is the solitary ticking of a clock, to close out ‘Black As Time’, a voiceover filled rumbler that decries the negativity of passing years: mentally, spiritually and, of course, physically. Speaking of black, ‘The Sound Of Dying Demons’ begins with a paean to early 70s Sabbath, slow and sludgey, ultimately rising from the mire on a dual guitar outburst, before returning to the quicksand. Apart from a swath of guitar, ‘Waterwitch’ is a glorious funeral dirge, start to finish. No real elaborate constructions this time around, the nine cuts lasting 52 minutes, the aforementioned ‘Waterwitch’ being the distance champ at a (relatively) conservative 7:03.

Unlike the previous Rob Lowe (SOLITUDE AETURNUS) era releases, it’s doubtful that (m)any of these songs will remain in the live set beyond this next tour.