As of this writing, winter continues its ceaseless march, and the air feels like total desolation: torrential rain, grey skies, and biting cold. Fittingly, Refugium have finally unleashed their first full-length, ‘In Hope of Eternal Life’. The project’s mastermind, Garrett Smith, already made a stir with the demo ‘Monuments to Degradation’, a strong interpretation of ’90s Death/Doom in the vein of the Peaceville Three and early Katatonia.
What made Refugium’s approach stand out on the demo was their rawer and cavernous take on the sound, which imbued it with a heaviness some bands in this style fail to bring. This made the question of which path they would take on this record. The answer is they have doubled down on the melancholy and continued incorporating more gothic flairs to their formula. Less talented bands would fall pray to the usual issues in this style, overly dramatic passages with bad clean singing that are more kitsch than sorrowful. Luckily, Garrett has strongly avoided these pitfalls with his careful mastery of arrangements.
Make no mistake, this album is as sullen as it gets. Garrett has done a great job of writing slow, crawling melodic leads that evoke what I like to call a ‘weeping’ guitar tone. Alongside those leads are the sprinkles of synths and somber piano sections. Of course, no record like this could do without the dual vox which feature more classic clean singing and morose growls. No one specific passage lingers terribly long, which makes the long duration of the songs (all lasting roughly 6-8 minutes) a breeze to get through. There’s no meandering or awkward passages, just a constant stream of pure anguish.
My highlights here are the impeccable ‘The Painless Flame’ which hits you hard with its emotive guitar solo and sporadic synths. Then there is the climatic finish of ‘Dispassion’ which brings all these elements together but also experiments more with faster tempos towards the latter half of the song, something I would like to see more of in the future.
In a style where it often feels like everything that needs to be said has already been said, Refugium manage to carve out a small but distinct niche that harks back to the glory days of Death/Doom. Garrett Smith clearly understands the genre inside and out. It’d be exciting to hear him push these ideas even further in the future, but for now we’re left with a beautifully miserable record—one to spin on a dim day and quietly indulge in grief.
