Review Summary: Culmination of In Vain.
In Vain are mystifying. While they may have reached an unfathomably high peak with
Aenigma, it is rare that they’ve ever loosened their reign of surprisingly subtle and meticulous progressive tendencies. In fact,
Solemn is the most vivid a canvas they’ve painted thus far, with colors swirling like the gentle stir of autumn leaves as often as they showcase barreling mountaintop winds. “Shadows Flap Their Black Wings” almost feels like it might be a mission statement-groovy stomping riffs and typical (but surely well executed!!) melodeath-style snarls dance ferociously betwixt cathartic clean vocals and escalating tremolo’s that are (only slightly) jarringly interrupted by…kick pedal and trumpets??? Hell yeah! In particular this moment had me briefly
perplexed-it felt jarring, perhaps unfitting? Yet it brought me to a realization that
Solemn is not an album trying to be intellectual or progressive, it is simply an album that utilizes whatever tools it sees fit to craft grandeur, or calamity, or dismality, or whatever in the goddamn hell it’s feeling. It is an almost living entity, with a pulse so lively it’s almost surreal.
“Season of Unrest” and “Watch for Me on the Mountain” are the two grinding behemoths on this record that showcase this astoundingly well. The former is whimsical even whilst massive snarls and drum fills punctuate each other perfectly, and when it does allow this whimsy to subside it is only to allow the quietude to be filled with full-blown mystique in the form of ambient textures and a gorgeous and
tasteful saxophone solo (move aside, Rivers of Nihil). Moments like these would probably feel shoehorned and directly unfitting if not for In Vain’s absolute songwriting mastery, with any and all creative flourishes working as natural ways of contrast or to bolster preexisting moods as they see fit. In all reality it could’ve been anything-a sax, a piano, a xylophone-these dudes can make it
work. The final track is a conclusion to this motif. Riffs trawl along with a melancholic yet hopeful cadence, which is punctuated even further by feeble, low-pitched warbles that lead to massive epic choirs that resonate with the force of stars going supernova. Oh yeah baby, this records got flair.
With all the praise already heaped, the most magical moment on this record is not a moment of eccentricity nor high-intellect progression, but rather the entirety of “Where the Winds Meet”. It is perhaps the least jarring song amongst them, and yet it emanates with such transcendental bliss that the band has only captured on such a wild scale in their absolute peaks (i.e “Culmination of the Enigma”). The way melodic leads wander with disregard to whatever else the band is doing, the dizzying primal force of thundering drum fills and the way these elements subside to merge back together with seraphical harmonies to serve as a single unit is almost spiritual levels of goddamn gorgeous. This is what makes this anomaly so great even at its core-when the ornaments and tinsel have been eschewed from this musical Christmas tree, still a valiant and verdant spruce stands tall. This is the culmination of In Vain.
