Year Of Metal #104: SubRosa - More Constant Than the Gods
I’ve gushed a few times about bands whose brand of metal sounds folkloric or otherwise natural. I’ve enjoyed several acts who give off ancient vibes, or the impression that they’ve just crawled out of the woods. While SubRosa don’t sound quite so timelessly evil as Ulver or Horseback, this collection of super dense, violin drenched folk metal might be among my favourite sounds yet. I’m not throwing in another kicking of Sleep Token just for the sake of it - I think this is what those lot think they sound like. It’s dramatic, fundamentally ridiculous music, but it sounds so brilliant and is so carefully structured that they pull it off for the best part of 70 minutes.
Opener “The Usher” utilises the popular tension-and-release format of hushed intro followed by pulverising guitars, only SubRosa’s quiet sections would be easily good enough to sustain a track on their own. The lightly churning organs, a plaintive fiddle, and beautiful interweaving vocal melodies are so much more than the calm before the storm - it’s just great spooky music that could end here in a totally satisfying fashion. It doesn’t end there, though - soon they’re powering their way through a long stretch of brightly produced stomping riffs. They save the best stuff for the coda, slowing down and down and down again to a truly treacly pace. The violins add so much, a melody that can soar miles above the downtuned distorted rock instruments - why more metal bands don’t implement a string section is anyone’s guess.
On the first couple of tracks especially, there are comparisons to be drawn to one of my favourite bands of recent times, Lankum. While the sounds are a fair way apart, both boldly utilise drones or drone-like effects (Lankum tend to use instruments that can sustain a note for as long as you need, while SubRosa have thudding, insistent pulses of bass and guitar). With “Ghosts Of A Dead Empire”, they conjure a powerful sense of dread that SuperHans would be proud of, with instrumentation that’s heavy but never outright violent.
“Fat Of The Ram” is maybe the most “standard” doom cut, with the lurching rhythms and waves of hefty guitars that shape the genre. But then the violins cut in again - this is some real avant garde playing, the strings scraping away like John Cale’s viola or squawking discordantly over the mix like a bird of prey. For a 12 minute song with about six notes in it, they’re able to summon so much texture and to play with the form so expertly; the guitars fuzz up and down, the pace manages to find slower and slower tempos when such a thing seems impossible, they cut everything out for an extended no wave-style anti-guitar solo.
If all that sounds like it could be trying, well, I’m sure it is to some people. But when they fancy it, SubRosa have one of the best ears for melody I’ve yet to hear in doom and sludge metal. “Cosey Mo” in particular sounds so instantly familiar, so timeless, that it has the feel of a trad arr. tune turned into a molten metal marching anthem. They don’t have time to mess around on this one - it’s just seven minutes long, easily the record’s shortest cut - so they rip straight into sky high riffs and anguished vocals that sound like Rebecca Vernon’s about to push her lungs out of her throat.
For all that it’s not an especially confrontational or difficult album as far as metal goes, More Constant Than The Gods is a fiercely uncommercial effort. SubRosa have since split up and gone on to form new bands expanding on aspects of the folk/doom sound - I’ve got The Otolith on now, which is pretty great so far - and I wish I’d been able to get on board when they were still around. You can’t constantly be listening to albums of this sprawl and intensity and sheer heft - you’d never get anything done - but as far as a sound goes, this is more or less perfect to my ears.
