I don't appreciate the debut album of The Otolith, successors of Salt Lake City doomers SubRosa, as much as it deserves. At least yet. Maybe it will even need another release for me to get there.
The good news however is that "Folium Limina" is definitely slowly growing on me, so next year I will love this more than I do now.
The good news however is that "Folium Limina" is definitely slowly growing on me, so next year I will love this more than I do now.
THE OTOLITH - Folium Limina (transparent orange 2LP with screenprint on side D) (2022)
My struggle with this album is a classic one - and it's almost a little embarrassing, because I have been the musician in a band that disbanded and carried on with a new name and one member less myself more than once. But it is like it is, so let's dissect this a bit:
During the recording of this album The Otolith were four out of five members of SubRosa. The fantastic sludgy doom band with the signature feature of two electric violins had been the child of singer / guitarist Rebecca Vernon. The vocals, which had always been delivered by multiple members are now carried by Kim Cordray (formerly Pack) and Sarah Pendleton, whose voices melt together just as smoothly and harmonious as their strings, and bassist Levi Hanna still unleashes an enormous Cult of Luna bellow. And it's all great! But... well, let me weave the but into a point for point competition between the two bands:
Name: SubRosa, The Otolith. Both band names don't tell you much on their own, but I'm going with The Otolith, which seems a little more memorable and exciting on the tongue.
Album title: "Folium Limina" is Latin. And if any Latin expert gets to read it there will probably three mistakes in those two words - because that always happens when rock bands use Latin. SubRosa on the other hand had "No Help For The Mighty Ones", "More Constant Than The Gods" and my favorite, the resigned "For This We Fought The Battle Of Ages". All much more evocative. Point for SubRosa.
Artwork: The cover is there and there is something on it. But it looks nice and is certainly more exciting than the front of the last SubRosa studio album (which overall still had great design) or the "Live At Roadburn" release. And it also looks beautiful in combination with the orange vinyl and the black screen print on the music-less side D. (see pictures below!)
Poetry: Lyrically both bands are good. And since they always credited the lyrics to the whole band it's hard to tell how big Rebecca Vernon's part in this has been. But what I miss the most now is her part in delivering them. When I listen to "Folium Limina" as a non-native English speaker, I have to read the lyric sheet to be invested in any of the lyrics. Nothing stands out automatically in a way that makes me go damn! And SubRosa had a lot of those moments, where Vernon threw some incredibly bleak or strong line at you in her aggressive, sharply pronounced vocal style and it really took you aback and made you much more invested in the whole.
And as much as The Otolith are trying their best, the band just misses the substitute for that particular raw tone I loved so much, even though the songwriting on this album is fantastic and sometimes actually expanding the formula in ways which probably wouldn't have found their way onto a SubRosa release. But being so fond of Vernon's harsh voice, I can't help but still experience a lot of this as the band minus front woman situation it technically is.
One way to avoid this effect would be to just sound less like SubRosa in general, but that is illusionary, because the signature power violin duo is such a unique front and center feature of the sound. And of course it's awesome, so you don't want to lose that!
Yet what The Otolith could do is to crank up other elements. Rebecca Vernon may be a great singer, performer, composer, multi-instrumentalist - but she's far from being a virtuosa on the guitar, an irony which she even pointed out herself in interviews.
On "Folium Limina" the bassist also plays the guitar parts, but keeps the six strings mainly on riff duty, just like it was in the former band. Meanwhile however The Otolith have recruited a new member to play bass and Levi Hanna has fully switched to guitar. My hope for the next release is that there will be more focus and variety in the guitar sector, so that - also with the additional creative input of the new member plus the passing of time until then - there will just be more stuff making me forgot what I am missing so much now.
Despite all my lament "Folium Limina" is an outstanding, crushingly heavy and heavenly beautiful Doom Metal record, only surpassed by few other genre releases of 2022, one which not many other constellations of artists could have made. And drummer Andy Petterson again has done an excellent job of producing it.
It's just very tough to follow the monumentally high standards they have set themselves before. You might have suspected by now that "For This We Fought The Battle Of Ages" simply is one of my favorite Doom Metal albums of all time. Never before and after has such a ton of emotions been delivered in a comparable wayAnd that's probably something which you can't just repeat on cue, no matter if you are The Rosa or SubOtolith.
But then being among the best of the very best is an unfair expectation for any album, so there should be no reason not to thoroughly enjoy "Folium Limina". Give me a couple of weeks or months and I'll be there, promised!
My struggle with this album is a classic one - and it's almost a little embarrassing, because I have been the musician in a band that disbanded and carried on with a new name and one member less myself more than once. But it is like it is, so let's dissect this a bit:
During the recording of this album The Otolith were four out of five members of SubRosa. The fantastic sludgy doom band with the signature feature of two electric violins had been the child of singer / guitarist Rebecca Vernon. The vocals, which had always been delivered by multiple members are now carried by Kim Cordray (formerly Pack) and Sarah Pendleton, whose voices melt together just as smoothly and harmonious as their strings, and bassist Levi Hanna still unleashes an enormous Cult of Luna bellow. And it's all great! But... well, let me weave the but into a point for point competition between the two bands:
Name: SubRosa, The Otolith. Both band names don't tell you much on their own, but I'm going with The Otolith, which seems a little more memorable and exciting on the tongue.
Album title: "Folium Limina" is Latin. And if any Latin expert gets to read it there will probably three mistakes in those two words - because that always happens when rock bands use Latin. SubRosa on the other hand had "No Help For The Mighty Ones", "More Constant Than The Gods" and my favorite, the resigned "For This We Fought The Battle Of Ages". All much more evocative. Point for SubRosa.
Artwork: The cover is there and there is something on it. But it looks nice and is certainly more exciting than the front of the last SubRosa studio album (which overall still had great design) or the "Live At Roadburn" release. And it also looks beautiful in combination with the orange vinyl and the black screen print on the music-less side D. (see pictures below!)
Poetry: Lyrically both bands are good. And since they always credited the lyrics to the whole band it's hard to tell how big Rebecca Vernon's part in this has been. But what I miss the most now is her part in delivering them. When I listen to "Folium Limina" as a non-native English speaker, I have to read the lyric sheet to be invested in any of the lyrics. Nothing stands out automatically in a way that makes me go damn! And SubRosa had a lot of those moments, where Vernon threw some incredibly bleak or strong line at you in her aggressive, sharply pronounced vocal style and it really took you aback and made you much more invested in the whole.
And as much as The Otolith are trying their best, the band just misses the substitute for that particular raw tone I loved so much, even though the songwriting on this album is fantastic and sometimes actually expanding the formula in ways which probably wouldn't have found their way onto a SubRosa release. But being so fond of Vernon's harsh voice, I can't help but still experience a lot of this as the band minus front woman situation it technically is.
One way to avoid this effect would be to just sound less like SubRosa in general, but that is illusionary, because the signature power violin duo is such a unique front and center feature of the sound. And of course it's awesome, so you don't want to lose that!
Yet what The Otolith could do is to crank up other elements. Rebecca Vernon may be a great singer, performer, composer, multi-instrumentalist - but she's far from being a virtuosa on the guitar, an irony which she even pointed out herself in interviews.
On "Folium Limina" the bassist also plays the guitar parts, but keeps the six strings mainly on riff duty, just like it was in the former band. Meanwhile however The Otolith have recruited a new member to play bass and Levi Hanna has fully switched to guitar. My hope for the next release is that there will be more focus and variety in the guitar sector, so that - also with the additional creative input of the new member plus the passing of time until then - there will just be more stuff making me forgot what I am missing so much now.
Despite all my lament "Folium Limina" is an outstanding, crushingly heavy and heavenly beautiful Doom Metal record, only surpassed by few other genre releases of 2022, one which not many other constellations of artists could have made. And drummer Andy Petterson again has done an excellent job of producing it.
It's just very tough to follow the monumentally high standards they have set themselves before. You might have suspected by now that "For This We Fought The Battle Of Ages" simply is one of my favorite Doom Metal albums of all time. Never before and after has such a ton of emotions been delivered in a comparable wayAnd that's probably something which you can't just repeat on cue, no matter if you are The Rosa or SubOtolith.
But then being among the best of the very best is an unfair expectation for any album, so there should be no reason not to thoroughly enjoy "Folium Limina". Give me a couple of weeks or months and I'll be there, promised!
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