The Thought That Swallowed All feels like a record forged in a pressure chamber where black metal’s corrosive atmosphere collides with death metal’s dense gravitational pull. Through Mists approaches this album with a mindset closer to an engineer of chaos than a traditional songwriter, constructing each track as a shifting mechanism of tension, abrasion, and warped melody.

The production leans into a deliberately claustrophobic aesthetic—guitars are serrated and angular, often layered in dissonant intervals that twist around each other like rusted gears grinding under strain. Instead of relying on sheer distortion, the band uses tonal instability as a weapon. Riffs frequently pivot mid‑phrase, creating a sensation of ground slipping beneath the listener, while the bass acts less as a foundation and more as a subterranean pulse that mutates with each passage.

Drumming is a standout element, not because of constant extremity but because of its unpredictable architecture. Blast beats erupt in jagged bursts, then collapse into fractured rhythms that feel almost improvised yet remain tightly controlled. The percussion often functions as a counterpoint to the guitars rather than a reinforcement, giving the music a sense of perpetual imbalance that suits the album’s conceptual weight.

Vocally, the performance is a hybrid of cavernous growls and strained, spectral rasps—two textures that mirror the album’s dual nature. Instead of dominating the mix, the voice is woven into the instrumentation like another layer of distortion, enhancing the atmosphere rather than dictating it. The delivery feels intentionally distant, as if echoing from within the very “thought” the album describes.

What makes The Thought That Swallowed All compelling is its refusal to settle into predictable patterns. Songs evolve like unstable chemical reactions: motifs appear briefly, dissolve, and re-emerge in altered forms. Melodic fragments surface through the dissonance, offering fleeting clarity before being consumed by the surrounding turbulence. This approach gives the album a narrative quality—less a collection of tracks and more a single, spiraling descent into introspection and dread.

Through Mists demonstrates a strong command of experimental composition without sacrificing the visceral impact expected from black/death metal. The record is dense, abrasive, and mentally demanding, but it rewards listeners who appreciate music that challenges structure and embraces psychological unease. It’s the kind of album that doesn’t just play—it envelops, constricts, and lingers long after the final note decays.

Bandcamp: https://throughmists.bandcamp.com/album/the-thought-that-swallowed-all

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