Conjurer - Páthos

Album Review

Jul 7

Conjurer

Páthos

Páthos has a bunch of great ideas that don’t necessarily fit together…

Conjurer took the COVID-19 pause to come together and record Páthos, their second full-length album and first coming from the reliable Nuclear Blast label.

And yes, the label aptly describes Conjurer as "devastating" and "thrilling."

The band, a four-piece out of the UK, is immensely creative - squishing riff after riff (and tempo change after tempo change) into each of its standard 6+ minute songs.

And yes, they are sometimes devastating - particularly towards the end of each track. Conjurer likes to take us on a path of chaos and exploration before building to a cathartic head at the song's end.

And this works. But for a band so creative, so "thrilling," there are large collections of riffs that feel almost transitionary. As in, how can we get from one early idea to the climax of the song at the finale?

The result is an album with some truly special moments surrounded by many watered-down, forgettable moments.

“We do feel really good about the songs, but it is a truly miserable, hopeless record.” - Brady Deeprose (guitar/vocals)
- Loudersound.com, February 2021

The above quote says more than he probably meant to say about the album's overall aesthetic. In fact, Deeprose goes on to say the songs are "really vile and disgusting."

To be fair, Páthos is definitely not a miserable listening experience - but the underbelly and intent behind its construction can certainly feel that way, especially considering how Conjurer felt about the world during COVID.

What Páthos is is an expansive half metal, half sludge-metal album that is chocked full of fresh ideas, bruising breakdowns, eerie clean guitar riffs, and some clever songwriting.

However, we wouldn't quite call them "The "Non-Specific UK Metal Band" America Needs" as Kerrang did back in 2018. This, off the heels of their debut album, Mire, putting Conjurer on the map as a band that perfectly balanced their lack of attachment to a genre.

This time, though, the lack of genre-specificity does end up hurting Páthos in the end - refusing to pick a direction or bundle up epic moments as one cohesive 'HELL YEAH.'

The album opener, "It Dwells," is an excellent example of the pattern seen throughout Páthos, which may largely be a byproduct of having nothing but time to record a complicated album during COVID with no live shows.

Over 7 minutes, "It Dwells" evolves and transforms between frantic chaos, slogging half-time breakdowns, clean guitar riffs, and painfully slow outro riffs. It encapsulates the formula of Páthos a great deal, and it works well. But the formula wears thin as the album progresses, and more than anything, the structure of consistently inconsistent robs Conjurer of reaching their ceiling.

That is to say - there's more Conjurer is capable of, which is an exciting concept considering Páthos is still an impressive offering.

As mentioned, the final moments of the songs on Páthos are fantastic and flatten you.

" Basilisk" finishes up with a heavy headbanging breakdown, and "In Your Wake" absolutely punishes your eardrums throughout, finishing with a massive final minute.

It doesn't stop there - "Those Years, Condemned" has a big emotional finale, and "All You Will Remember" finishes in a flurry of frantic blast beats.

These moments are epic but essentially take too long getting there - and that's the theme of Páthos as a whole.

Páthos is a little too inconsistent with its songwriting and focus, and while they each contain impressive and crushing riffs at times, the overall glass of whiskey is too diluted.